Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted says he will follow a federal judge's order to set early voting hours three days before elections are held. The order comes out of a lawsuit filed by President Obama's re-election campaign and other Democrats in 2012 over a state law that cuts off in-person early voting for most residents. Husted's current fall election voting schedule only includes Saturday hours before Election Day. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles reports.
When a federal court granted a request from the Obama for America campaign to allow Ohioans to vote on the weekend before the election, the decision was only for that election. But the court was asked by the Ohio Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee to make those days permanently available for all future elections. Now, the court has granted that request. The Ohio Democratic Party says 96,000 Ohioans voted in 2012 on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the Presidential election. And this could be the end of the legal argument over those disputed three days before an election. Secretary of State Jon Husted says he intends to follow this decision. He says this is a case of uniformity and equality winning the day. And he says it’s a good thing that all Ohioans can know the rules for voting well in advance of the election.
