[Tom T.]

Gary,

I've not read either decision (Ron may have?) but generally federal courts have jurisdiction over "federal questions"--the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which Ron referred to above, has to do with the constitutionally protected right of due process. My guess is that the basic argument is that since the voting machines in question have a certain, known, error rate, which is more than negligible (in the court's view anyway), the machines deprive voters and/or candidates due process. A contrary argument would be that such a problem wouldn't really matter at the end of the day, since it would presumably affect candidates equally. Maybe Ron could provide further detail?

TT