Berkeley voters may get a second chance to vote on a city initiative that would establish procedures for opening medical marijuana dispensaries. A California judge made a preliminary decision to nullify the election that resulted in the proposal's narrow defeat. The reason:

The county reused voting machines from Diebold Election Systems Inc. without saving sufficient data to carry out a recount or review the election process, [Gregory] Luke [representing Americans for Safe Access] said. Officials failed to save key evidence even after the suit was pending, he said. Data from the vote in question has only been found on 20 of the hundreds of machines used in the election, according to Luke. ...

In addition to ordering another vote on Measure R, Judge Smith's preliminary ruling called for the county to pay the US$22,604 cost of the recount, as well as attorney's fees and the cost of a trip to Diebold offices in Texas.

The judge is expected to make a final ruling (which may be appealed) within two weeks.