Ohio Democrats State Logo

Ohio Democratic

County Chairs Association

Ohio Democrats Party ODP Logo

Main Navigation

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • County Chairs
    • County Chairs of the Year – 2020
    • ODCCA Officers
      • Message from President Janet Carson
    • ODCCA Executive Committee, Regional Liaisons & Committees
    • ODCCA Constitution and Bylaws
    • How Ohio’s 88 counties got their names
    • WHY We Are Democrats!
    • Ohio Democratic Party (ODP)
      • History: Ohio Democratic Party
    • Democratic National Committee (DNC)
      • DNC Chair Jaime Harrison
      • DNC Officers
      • The 2020 Democratic Platform
  • Team
    • President Joe Biden & Vice President Kamala Harris
      • Nominees and Appointees
    • Senator Sherrod Brown
    • U.S. House of Representatives
      • Congresswoman Joyce Beatty
      • Congresswoman Marcia Fudge
      • Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur
      • Congressman Tim Ryan
    • Justices of the Ohio Supreme Court
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody J. Stewart
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner
    • State Senate Minority Leadership – 134th General Assembly
    • State House Minority Leadership – 134th General Assembly
    • Former President Barack Obama
  • Candidates
    • Interested in being a candidate?
      • Main Street Initiative – 2021
      • Candidate Information: Guides, Forms, Links
    • Are You Ready To VOTE?
  • Issues
  • News
  • Events
    • ODCCA
      • ODCCA Meetings & ODP Co-Hosted Events
      • ODCCA & ODP County Chairs Weekly Conference Calls
    • Local County Parties
    • ODP
      • County Chairs Conference Calls
    • DNC
      • 2020 Democratic National Convention – 8.17-20.2020
    • Are you ready to vote in 2021?
  • Contact Us
  • Links
  • Members Only

Early Voting Lawsuit – Victory…again

September 4, 2014

Federal District Court Judge Economus ruled in favor in the early voting lawsuit.  Golden Week is restored as are evening hours and an additional Sunday of early voting.  Another victory for ALL Ohioans!  An appeal by the Secretary of State and the AG could be forthcoming as GOP continues to attempt to restrict Ohioans voting rights and voting opportunities.

Documents  filed with the amicus brief were cited to undercut one of the GOP’s main purported justifications for eliminating Golden Week.  The Democratic Miniority Caucus of the Ohio House of Representatives showed that its elimination did not add any time to the period that election officials would have to confirm a voter’s address after they register and vote.

Here is a summary of the order: Judge Economus granted the preliminary injunction against SB 238.  He held that SB 238 and the related directives issued by Secretary Husted were unconstitutional and a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.  For the November 2014 Election he ordered the following:

EIP must be permitted for 35 days out from the general election (status quo pre S.B. 238)

Husted shall require BOEs to set uniform and suitable EIP voting hours for:

  • Tuesday-Friday, September 30-October 3
  • Monday, October 6
  • Evening hours between Monday, October 20 and Friday, October 24 and between Monday, October 27 and Friday, October 31 and must “in good faith” consider the judge’s ruling when setting such hours.
  • Sunday, October 26

Husted may not prevent individual county BOEs from adopting additional hours by a majority vote their members.

Future elections are reserved for future consideration.

 

Yet Again—Federal Court Finds Husted Violated Ohioans’ Voting Rights

Republican Secretary of State has turned the office into a partisan lapdog, not a watchdog for voters’ rights

COLUMBUS – In response to today’s federal court ruling declaring Jon Husted’s directive and other efforts to cut early voting in Ohio before the November general elections as a violation of the constitution and of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern issued the following statement:

“Jon Husted has a documented history of filing last minute appeals and issuing unconstitutional, eleventh-hour directives that aim to prevent convenient early voting hours, and this partisan agenda has wasted over $400,000 of taxpayers’ dollars.  Ohioans deserve a Secretary of State that will fight for expansive voting opportunities for working middle class families, not add to voter confusion with last ditch appeals.  That is why Ohioans will elect State Senator Nina Turner to be the next Secretary of State.”

An August poll conducted by Public Policy Polling on behalf of the Ohio Democratic Party showed Jon Husted narrowly ahead of Senator Nina Turner by 46% to 43%.

FROM TODAY’S OPINION*: “Secretary Husted has offered no explanation as to why uniformity, standing alone, should be considered an interest important enough to effectively make it harder for groups of citizens to vote.” [Source: Memorandum Opinion and Order, page 59-60 (9/4/2014)]  

*A copy of the opinion is attached: Early Voting Decision – 9.04.14.

BACKGROUND

Three major Ohio editorials made it clear that these bills were being passed for no other reason than deny likely Democratic voters the vote before the 2014 election. The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s editorial said that the measures “aim to limit voting by Ohioans who might vote for Democrats” and called passage of the bills “an affront to democracy” that allowed politicians to “pick their own voters.”  [Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer (2/19/2014), “Ohio House Republicans should walk away from bills aimed at decreasing the ease of voting in Ohio”]

The Toledo Blade editorial said the bills “would make it harder to vote among citizens whom GOP politicians would rather keep away from the polls.” On the GOP argument that the bills were need to fight “voter fraud,” the Blade noted “[t]hat argument would be more credible if those who make it could point to specific examples of fraud in Ohio voting that their measures would prevent. But they can’t offer evidence of systematic fraud, because it doesn’t exist.  These bad measures aren’t as blatant as the poll taxes and literacy tests that Southern elections officials used during the civil rights era a half-century ago to keep African-Americans from voting. But their effect is largely, and intolerably, the same, and their approval would seem to invite court challenges under federal voting rights law.” [Source: Toledo Blade (2/19/14), “Don’t suppress the vote”]

The Akron Beacon Journal editorial noted that the Republicans decided that “[r]ather than work in a bipartisan way on a comprehensive overhaul of election laws, the Republican-run legislature has proceeded on its own unfortunate course. This week, the Ohio House is working on bills that push aside important priorities and contain flaws that would make voting more difficult.” [Source: Akron Beacon Journal (2/18/2014), “Election partisans”]

Jon Husted supported cutting early voting days by a week.  According to the Columbus Dispatch, Secretary of State Husted recommends that “early voting would instead start 29 days before the election” but it end during the afternoon “the Sunday before the general election.”  [Source: Columbus Dispatch, (10/24/2013), “Husted promotes limits on early voting.”]

Federal courts already ruled in 2012 and 2014 that Husted’s prior attempts to cut general election early voting days were illegal.  In 2012, the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Ohio ruled that Ohio could not cut off early voting the Friday before the general election.  Republicans attempted to reduce the number of days of early voting, but the Ohio General Assembly reversed course after HB 194 was threatened with a referendum campaign.  [Source: Reuters (8/31/12), “Court overturns Ohio early voting restrictions in win for Democrats.”] 

This relief granted by the Court was made permanent in 2014. [Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer, (6/11/2014), “Federal court orders Ohio restore early voting hours on 3 days before Election Day.”]

The decision declaring Republicans’ attempt to cut off early voting before Election Day unconstitutional was upheld by federal appellate courts.  The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision declaring the restriction “unconstitutional.”  “The court acknowledged an argument that ‘low-income and minority voters are disproportionately affected by elimination’ of the three days of polling for many voters and said ‘there is no definitive evidence… that elections boards would be tremendously burdened’ by returning poll access to the standard before recent changes to the state’s laws.”

[Source: CNN (10/5/2012), “Federal court upholds Ohio early voting ruling.”]

According to official records maintained by Jon Husted’s own office, more than 600,000 Ohioans used early in-person voting in 2012. [Source: Ohio Secretary of State’s website, 2012 “Absentee Ballot Report.”]

 

Blog Sidebar

Search the Site

Categories

  • Events
    • DNC
    • Local County Parties
    • ODCCA
    • ODP
  • Issues
    • Federal
    • State
  • News
  • Photo Galleries
  • Uncategorized

Recent Posts

  • Special health care enrollment period through ACA
  • Redistricting Ohio – 2021
  • Keep informed about gerrymandering during 2021
  • What issues may be on the ballot? Who determines what issue is on ballot?
  • ODCCA Events

Archives

  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013

Trending

absentee ballots Budget Campaign Finance Charter school College Affordability congressional redistricting DNC early voting Economy education Elections Equal Pay Events Fact Check FBI Fraud Governor Governor 2018 heroin Higher Education jobs local government funding Medicaid Expansion Mental Health military ODCCA ODP Ohio AFL-CIO Right To Work SB5 School funding State Auditor State Treasurer taxes unemployment Unions Veterans Voter Protection Voter Registration Voters Rights voter suppression voting rights women's caucus Women's Issues workers

Contribute to ODCCA

Donate Now

Your contributions
DO make a difference!

When you contribute,
you make a difference in Ohio!
Thank You!

Donate Now

Recent News

  • Special health care enrollment period through ACA
  • Redistricting Ohio – 2021
  • Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee elects chair
  • Georgia turns BLUE!
  • Want to help flip Georgia BLUE? Here are a few ideas!
  • First Presidential Debate to be held in Cleveland! Tuesday, 9.29.2020
  • BidenHarris2020 – We are 1 Team!
  •  
  • View all news

Current Issues

  • Keep informed about gerrymandering during 2021
  • What issues may be on the ballot? Who determines what issue is on ballot?
  • United States Census 2020
  •  
  • View all issues

Pages

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Team
  • Candidates
  • Issues
  • News
  • Events
  • Contact Us
  • Links
  • Members Only
Donate Now

© 2014 Ohio Democratic County Chairs Association, All Rights Reserved

Paid for and authorized by the Ohio Democratic County Chairs Association, Amy F. Grubbe/Treasurer, 2810 Hull Road #6, Huron 44839.

Not authorized by any Federal, state or county candidate or campaign committee.