A federal appeals court yesterday ruled California’s recall vote can go ahead as originally planned on Oct. 7 reversing another court order that would have delayed the election until March.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which called for the delay because some voting districts will still be using faulty voting machines, announced it would not appeal yesterday’s decision.

The court unanimously ruled that federal court’s “cannot lightly interfere” with state elections. In addition the court noted that hundreds of thousands of Californians had already voted by absentee ballot.

Meanwhile Republican legislator Darrell Issa, who bankrolled the recall, said he would urge Californians to vote to keep Governor Gray Davis in office if both Republican frontrunners State Senator Tom McClintock and Arnold Schwarzenegger remain in the race. Issa said the two Republicans would split the GOP vote and give the election to Democrat Cruz Bustamante, who Issa described as worse than Davis.