Court Decision Means Weekend Voting Re-Instated

Ohio’s elections chief ordered boards of elections across Ohio to open their doors for in-person early voting the weekend before the presidential election after the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to take up his latest appeal to restrict early voting.

In-person early voting will be available to all Ohio voters on Nov. 3, 4 and 5 under a directive Secretary of State Jon Husted issued immediately after the court denied his application for a stay of an appellate court decision to allow early voting the weekend before the election.

Democrats, who ushered thousands of voters to the polls the weekend before the 2008 presidential election, celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision and chastised Husted, a Republican, for fighting two previous rulings that called for more in-person early voting opportunities.

“While I am pleased with the outcome, it should not have taken Secretary Husted two appeals to learn what Ohio voters have known since 2006,” Sen. Nina Turner, a Cleveland Democrat, said in a statement. “There is no place for gamesmanship when it comes to the ballot box. It’s time to let the people vote.”

The lawsuit over early voting started in the summer when President Obama’s re-election campaign sued Husted and the state to prevent enforcement of a new, GOP-backed law to cut off early voting for non-military voters the Friday before the election.

The campaign said the law was unconstitutional because military voters would have more opportunities to cast an early ballot.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month upheld a lower court’s ruling that sided with the campaign. The appellate court’s decision allowed each of Ohio’s 88 boards of elections to decide in-person early voting hours for the weekend before the election.

Last week, Husted asked the Supreme Court to reverse the decision. He said federal courts should not be able to set Ohio’s election rules. He also said the appellate court’s ruling would leave different counties with different early voting hours.

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