With the future of the Oct. 7 recall election in judicial limbo, a pair of political scientists are predicting the delay could be good for Gov. Gray Davis.

Jim Gregg, a retired journalism and political science professor at Chico State University, and Charles Price, also a retired Chico State political science professor who has written a number of articles on the recall system, said Davis should benefit from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision Monday delaying the recall vote.

In a telephone interview Monday, Price said the recall effort has been marked by a "lynch mob, string-him-up mentality."

"I think it will help Gov. Gray Davis. I think Davis has a better chance of getting his message out," he said.

Gregg said the people behind the lawsuit that went to the 9th Circuit Court are opposed to the recall, and both men said the next step will almost certainly be the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It is problematic how the Supreme Court will decide," said Gregg, also in a telephone interview Monday.

Price said most of the members of the nation's highest court are on vacation, so there is some concern about how swiftly a hearing could take place.

Once a hearing does take place, the court may find itself in an interesting position.

Both Gregg and Price said the 9th Circuit is well known for being much more liberal than the Supreme Court, and the high court has overturned the circuit's decisions fairly regularly.

"They (the Supreme Court) have often locked horns with the 9th Circuit Court and maybe they will pull the rug out from under them again," observed Price, but there is something of a twist this time.

Price said the circuit court decision, delaying the recall, uses much of the same language the Supreme Court used in the decision to end the vote count in the Florida Gore-Bush general election.

"They (the Supreme Court justices) may have been burned so much by their decision in the Florida election that they might take a very hard look this time. Many of those judges felt the sting," said Gregg.

Price said the center of the circuit court ruling involved the use of the punch-card voting machines that created the "hanging chad" furor in Florida.

He said he doesn't think taking a position that Davis was elected in 2002 with these same machines will have much impact on the court's final position.

"Based on those Florida results, and hanging chads and so on, punch-card voting is not something we want in the 21st century," said Price.

Gregg, who said he took classes in 1950 from the University of California, Berkeley, professor who invented the punch-card voting machines and became a millionaire in the process, said the machines had never been challenged in court before the 2000 presidential election, because there had never been a vote so close before.

Study of the machines, according to Price, indicates there may be as much as a 3 percent error rate in the tabulation of punch-card votes.

The suit that led to the appellate court ruling involved the use of the punch-card machines in Los Angeles, Santa Clara, Solano, San Diego, Mendocino and Sacramento counties.

Gregg said had the suit not involved major population centers, the court might have ruled the other way.

If the delay holds, Price thinks it will also work to benefit Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign.

He said pressure from GOP leaders will be put on fellow Republican candidate Sen. Tom McClintock to drop out of the race.

Another issue in the delay involves voter turnout.

The Oct. 7 election was expected to have a low voter turnout and, Gregg said, traditional wisdom holds that lower turnouts tend to favor Republican candidates.

However, the March election, which seems to be the most likely target if the recall is delayed, is a presidential primary and should encourage a stronger turnout.