COLUMBUS- A spokesman for Ohio’s attorney general says the state will appeal a judge’s ruling that a law trimming early voting is unconstitutional.
At issue in the case is a series of Republican-backed voting changes that included the elimination of a week of early voting. During the so-called “golden week,” Ohioans could register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day.
The state’s Democratic Party was among the plaintiffs who sued Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, who found the silver lining in a legal setback.
“It is disappointing that a federal judge would again change the election rules after the current laws were upheld in the same federal district court by a settlement agreement we reached with the NAACP and the ACLU,” he said in a statement issued by his office.
“This point is further amplified when you consider that, for nearly 200 years, Ohioans voted for only one day. If it was constitutional for lawmakers to expand the voting period to 35 days, it must also be constitutional for the same legislative body to amend the timeframe to 28 days, a timeframe that remains one of the most generous in the nation,” Husted said.
Democrats claimed the early-voting cut disproportionately burdened black voters. On Tuesday, a federal judge sided with Democrats on that claim but ruled in the state’s favor on other challenged policies in the case.
“Today’s court decision and that fact that we continue to face voting restrictions in the state legislature only six months before a major presidential election underlines how badly we need a Voter Bill of Rights to enshrine our most fundamental freedom,” said Ohio Legislative Black Caucus President Alicia Reece (D-Cincinnati).
Reece is leading a grassroots effort to amend the state constitution to include a Voter Bill of Rights.
A spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine says the golden-week ruling will be appealed.