State and local leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said Thursday that the civil rights organization will likely file a lawsuit to postpone the recall election scheduled for Oct. 7 because they said it will disenfranchise racial and ethnic minority voters.

The basis for the lawsuit is still being formulated by attorneys, said Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP, but it will probably argue that precinct consolidation in some counties for the special election will make it difficult for minority voters to cast their votes.

"In Los Angeles County, consolidating precincts will force thousands of voters to cast their votes in polling places where they are unfamiliar," Huffman said.

The Republican-backed recall effort aims to remove Gov. Gray Davis from office. The NAACP lawsuit would seek to postpone the special election until November, when many counties in the state hold regular elections, Huffman said.

The Oct. 7 election was set by Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to take place 77 days after the secretary of state declared that a petition campaign had forced a recall vote.

In the rush to get ready for the special election, county registrars are thinking about setting up fewer places to vote. In Los Angeles County, for example, voters could see the number cut from 4,800 in a normal election to 3,100 for the recall.

Precinct consolidation would mean that voters would have to travel longer distances to get to polling places, Huffman said. This would hurt low-income minority voters who lack transportation and confuse others who would find their usual polling places are not available, she said.

Civil rights leaders said there are other concerns with the recall election, such as the short time they will have available to educate voters about the recall and the two measures included on the ballot.

One of the measures is the controversial Proposition 54, which would bar the state from collecting data on race and national origin. The other, Proposition 53, would dedicate part of the state budget every year to infrastructure, such as schools and highways.

"Voting is too serious for this kind of stuff," said Rob Howard, president of the north San Diego County branch of the NAACP. "We need to know what is going to happen. It is extremely difficult to educate people on Prop. 54 because of the time."

One of the main supporters of the recall election rejected the argument that minorities needed more time to consider what is on the ballot.

"I think it's disingenuous to say that (minorities need more time)," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, whose district encompasses much of Southwest County. "They have exactly the same amount of time other groups have."

Issa, who helped fund much of the recall effort with his own money, said that some in the leadership of the state NAACP are working closely with Democrats to derail the recall election.

Huffman said the NAACP is gathering information about concerns from local branches to formulate the lawsuit, which she said will likely be ready to file by next week.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-5426 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.