DAVIS TO SUE AGAIN FOR DELAY GOVERNOR TO ASK COURT FOR MARCH RECALL VOTE.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Gov. Gray Davis and his supporters plan to file a lawsuit today with the California Supreme Court asking that the recall election be postponed until March and that Davis be allowed to place his name on the list of potential successor candidates.

Davis argues that if the election is held on Oct. 7 as scheduled, and without his name on the successor list as currently required by law, it would disenfranchise voters throughout the state.

``Our position is if there's going to be a recall, let's let the maximum number of people vote,'' said Michael Kahn, one of the attorneys representing Davis.

Because of the compressed schedule between the time the election was certified last month and the vote, elections officials throughout the state are greatly reducing the number of polling places so they can manage the logistics and costs.

For example, in Los Angeles County, Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack is reducing what would normally be almost 5,000 polling places to 1,800.

If the recall election were consolidated with the March presidential primary, the plaintiffs argue, more polling places would be open and voters would have greater access.

Political analysts also believe Davis has a strategic reason to delay the election: More Democrats are expected to vote because of the contested Democratic presidential primary, while some of the anger against Davis may cool by then.

Recall supporters want the election to be held as soon as possible because, they argue, every day Davis is in office costs the taxpayers more money.

California is one of four states that have gubernatorial recall procedures not allowing the target of the recall to be listed as a successor candidate.

If Davis is recalled, the successor will win with a simple plurality because there is no primary.

That means, as the attorneys noted, someone could win with 10 percent or 20 percent of the vote, even if 45 percent of the voters wanted to keep Davis. They argue that disenfranchises those voters who support Davis in favor of a potentially smaller minority.

So far, Davis supporters have not had much luck in getting the courts to postpone the election. Courts rejected several previous attempts to postpone the election in connection with another lawsuit that is still pending, while they ruled in favor of recall supporters to get the petition signatures counted more quickly than initially planned.

A court has also ruled recently that voters do not have to cast a vote on the recall question itself in order to vote on a potential successor.

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com