| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) Porn star Mary Carey went to church on Tuesday to vote.
One of 135 replacement candidates on the ballot to succeed Gov. Gray Davis if he is recalled, she cast her ballot against the recall at the First United Methodist Church in North Hollywood and noted she hadn't been to church for a while.
She dressed for the occasion in a tight pink halter top and short skirt to make herself ``look innocent,'' she said.
By virtue of her day job, Carey has enjoyed more name recognition than many of the other candidates with scant chance of winning. But she was already preparing for the end.
``If it looks like I'm losing in the polls,'' she said, ``I``ll be giving a concession speech.''
One voter at the polling place, 40-year-old Vic Miyahira, said he hadn't voted for Carey but added, ``I do have one of her DVDs.''
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LOS ANGELES (AP) Gov. Gray Davis grudgingly acknowledged Tuesday he voted for fellow Democrat Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante on the second part of the recall ballot.
The governor had declined throughout the recall race to endorse his lieutenant's ``no on recall, yes on Bustamante'' campaign theme. He had indicated he would reveal his choice 10 days before the election, but he never did.
Davis remained coy after voting with his wife, Sharon, in their West Hollywood polling place on gridlocked Sunset Boulevard shortly after porn publisher and candidate Larry Flynt cast his ballot there as well.
``I voted for the most qualified person on the second ballot and you can probably figure out who that is,'' he said.
Reporters pressed him again later in the day when he visited a phone bank of union workers making get-out-the-vote calls. After Sharon Davis said she voted for Bustamante, Davis said that he'd voted for ``the most qualified Democrat'' on the ballot's second half.
Asked if that meant Bustamante, he said ``yes.''
Davis had wanted Democrats to stay out of the race to replace him if he is recalled, and he and Bustamante had a chilly relationship long before Bustamante broke his promise not to run and entered the race.
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FRESNO, Calif. (AP) Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's father had a little fun at his son's expense while scanning the list of 135 replacement candidates on Tuesday's recall ballot.
``I'm looking for Arnold, where's Arnold?'' the elder Cruz Bustamante joked at the polling place in Fresno, where the lieutenant governor, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, lived for many years.
``You want to sleep outside tonight, for the rest of the month?'' responded Bustamante's mother, Dominga.
Bustamante, who brought his parents to the polls, said regardless of the outcome of the first question on the ballot whether to recall Gov. Gray Davis he'll be able to work with a Gov. Schwarzenegger, if need be.
``When the battle is done you have to be able to work for the people of California,'' he said. ``One way or another, win or lose, I'm going to be at work tomorrow morning.''
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LOS ANGELES (AP) Even though Arnold Schwarzenegger had to put on glasses to read the ballot, he said he had no trouble finding his own name among the 135 candidates to replace Gov. Gray Davis.
``Instead of going through two pages I just went through 10 pages and you always look for the longest name,'' Schwarzenegger said as he cast his ballot with his wife, Maria Shriver, in the garage of a mansion in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
The voting had hardly begun Tuesday before a voter addressed him as ``governor,'' prompting a poll worker to bark ``No electioneering!''
Asked how he felt about that title, Schwarzenegger said, ``Good, sounds good.''
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MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. (AP) Nearly 200 dirty, tired firefighters cast their ballots over the weekend in California's unprecedented recall election, taking time out from battling a wildfire in the Mendocino National Forest, north of San Francisco.
Glenn County election officials traveled to a fire camp Sunday to accept their absentee ballots, then express-mailed them to the firefighters' home counties in time to be counted Tuesday, said the forest's recreation officer, Jack Horner.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) Darrell Issa, the San Diego County congressman who bankrolled much of the recall effort, said the victory by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger made Tuesday a ``very sweet day.''
``This is a day in which the people of California rose up, said they weren't going to take it anymore,'' Issa said.
The movement to recall Gov. Gray Davis took off in May when Issa began contributing what came to be more than $1.7 million of his fortune into the campaign. The money was used to get about 1.6 million signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot.
The Republican car alarm magnate explored his own run to replace Gov. Gray Davis, but tearfully dropped out in August just as Schwarzenegger joined the race.
Issa said he felt Schwarzenegger was a viable candidate ``from day one.''
``The next three years are going to be exciting. We have an exciting candidate, we have somebody that will work with the Assembly and the Senate. But if they don't want to work back, he can talk above the small minds, the small people in Sacramento, and that's important,'' Issa said.