Judge orders California to dump voting machines

A US federal judge has ruled California must get rid of its punch-card voting machines by the 2004 elections.

Labour groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and others hailed US District Judge Stephen Wilson's decision.

The ruling comes more than a year before a state-imposed deadline.

"California can look forward to a chad-free presidential election in the year 2004," ACLU lawyer Dan Tokaji said.

Punch card ballots were partially blamed for the confusion surrounding the 2000 presidential elections in Florida.

Many ballots cast in several Florida counties had hanging, dimpled or pregnant chads - the little tabs punched out to record a vote.

More than 75% of Californians, or 8.5 million people, vote with punch cards. Secretary of State Bill Jones last year ordered counties to replace the punch cards with newer voting systems, such as touch screens or optical scanners, by July 2005.

But the ACLU sued, demanding the punch cards be replaced by the 2002 elections.

Conny McCormack, Los Angeles County's chief election official, called the ruling "catastrophic." She says there isn't enough time to test a new system like touch screens and estimates it could cost the state nearly $100m.