(California) Special election to fill (State Senator turned Lt Gov) Maldonado's seat OKd

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(05-20) 18:48 PDT SAN JOSE -- Despite objections by California Democrats, the U.S. Justice Department gave the go-ahead Thursday to a special election June 22 to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado.

The department announced its approval at a hearing in San Jose of a three-judge federal court considering a Democratic-sponsored lawsuit that sought to block the election.

The suit claimed that the choice of dates would lead to lower minority turnout in Monterey County, one of five counties in the Senate district. Monterey is also one of four California counties that require Justice Department clearance for special elections and changes in balloting procedures because of a history of suppressing minority voting.

The timing has political consequences. Democrats usually fare better with a higher turnout and want to delay the balloting on Maldonado's replacement until the statewide election in November.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/20/BA1O1DI8PR.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea