Here.

Some priceless quotes:

Several groups claimed that six California counties that still use punch-card ballots similar to those used in the 2000 Florida election debacle will mean votes in those counties, which have a heavy concentration of minorities, will be unfairly counted.

...Thomas brought up a point raised in a brief filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. MALDEF argued that including the initiatives on the Oct. 7 ballot denies voters the mandated time to consider the ballot materials.

I've got my voter materials in the mail. I've got over three weeks to read it. Am I that much smarter than the people they're worried about?

Then the panel turned toward the voting machines themselves. The state concedes the machines are obsolete, as it must since it conceded as much in the consent decree. Woods argued that the fact the machines are "obsolete" shouldn't matter.

"The secretary of state has taken extraordinary measures to educate the voters on all the various machines," Woods said.

"Do you have any studies that education will overcome any problems?" Thomas asked.

No, was Woods' reply. "Rather than cancel an election, it's better to try to remedy the problem," he argued.

"We have to accept your assertion and hope; is that what you're saying?" Pregerson asked.

Pregerson then playfully pointed out that education might not work on tired workers, or workers harried by trying to find their polling place. Then he said those problems might be more of a concern to minority candidates who may have more reason to be tired at the end of the day than whites.

"In L.A., if you look around, see who's working and who isn't," Pregerson said, drawing laughter from the near-capacity courtroom.

I'm sorry, but I am having great difficulty interpreting these things any other way than the following:

"If we use punchcard ballots, or expect them to read materials, how are those poor, benighted, hardworking darkies going to manage to vote?"

I have rarely seen a rawer example of liberal racism...the paternalistic kind that is often worse than the more familiar kind.