Ohio’s 35 day period of early voting – beginning next Tuesday - will remain in effect after a three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the state of Ohio’s appeal Wednesday.
But Secretary of State Jon Husted said Wednesday he will ask the full 15-member federal appeals court to hear the state’s appeal of the decision. Time is running out for that, though, with early voting set to start in five days.
It is not yet clear whether the full appeals court will agree to hear the state’s appeal.
“This case is about Ohioans’ right to vote for the public officials that make the rules and laws we live under, and yet this ruling eliminates elected officials’ ability to do what we elected them to do,’’ Husted said in a statement released Wednesday.
The ruling Wednesday is seen as a victory for Democrats, who opposed efforts by the majority Republicans in the state legislature and Husted to trim a week off Ohio’s early voting period and restrict the hours of early, in-person voting at the state’s county boards of elections.
Republicans had wanted to trim what is known as “Golden Week” – the week between the start of early voting and the voter registration deadline where people can go to their local boards of elections, register to vote and cast their ballots at the same time.
Earlier this year, when the legislature did away with Golden Week and Husted put out a schedule for early in-person voting that had limited evening and weekend hours, a number of groups filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.
The ACLU represented the NAACP, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, and several African-American churches in the lawsuit. The lawsuit against the state had the support of the U.S. Department of Justice.
U.S. District Court Judge Peter Economus ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering that the early voting days taken away by the legislature be restored.
After the ruling by Economus, Husted issued a new 35-day schedule of early voting, including more weeknight hours and an additional Sunday of early in-person voting. But he said he would appeal the judge’s decision.
Husted, represented by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, went to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Part of the argument the state made was that, even at 28 days, Ohio would offer more early voting time than 41 states.
The three-judge panel agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that the trimming back of early voting days and hours primarily hurt minority voters, the elderly, the poor, and young voters. All of those groups tend to vote Democratic.
“Once again a court has stepped up to safeguard the vote for thousands of Ohioans who want to participate in the midterm election free of obstruction,’’ said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, in a written statement. “This decision protects the people’s voice at the polls and the integrity of our elections.”
