Breaking: Federal Court Orders Ohio to Restore Weekend of Early Voting

[babsbunny]

http://progressohio.org/2014/06/breaking-federal-court-orders-ohio-to-restore-weekend-of-early-voting/?utm_content=bufferf67cd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

posted on: http://electionlawblog.org/?p=62265

Federal district court judge Peter Economus just issued this order in Obama for America v. Husted.(I covered the earlier machinations in this case before the 2012 elections, and wrote about the case extensively in The 2012 Voting Wars, Judicial Backstops, and the Resurrection of Bush v. Gore, 81George Washington Law Review 1865 (2013).)

The background is complicated but here are the basics at this stage. Following all the fights over early voting in 2012, the Ohio legislature passed a new set of more restrictive voting laws for 2014 and beyond, including cutting back on early voting the weekend before the election (leading to a separate Voting Rights Act section 2 lawsuit claiming this discriminates against African-American voters in part because of the “Souls to the Polls” voting done on the Sunday before election day). However, when Ohio did its cutback on early voting this time, it did not repeal the earlier law (which was the focus of the earlier dispute in this case) giving overseas and military voters (UOCAVA voters) who happen to be in Ohio just before Election Day the option to vote on those three days before election day.

[Gothmog]

1. This is great news

The courts are blocking these voter suppression efforts. The Souls to the Polls program is a good one

[reflection]

2. Yes!

[spanone]

3. k&r...

[GoCubsGo]

4. Excellent news! nt

[AngryDem001]

5. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, babsbunny.

[Marthe48]

7. One step forward

after many steps back. I hope that Ohio voters, like me, will vote Republicans right out, so we can start moving ahead instead of floundering. The last bill passed in the Ohio State Legislature was to Make March Maple Syrup Month. We have a whole lot of nothing thanks to the politicians who take our money and vote on fluff like this.

[CTyankee]

8. Oh, lordy! How wonderful. I was so hoping for this...

[AAO]

9. There go the repugs last chance!

bwahahahahahha!

[xchrom]

10. Du rec

[Cha]

11. Whoa! Sanity reigns! thanks babsbunny

[AllyCat]

12. Can we please do this in Wisconsin ?

[NCarolinawoman]

21. ...and North Carolina

[mopinko]

13. cuz like we kept saying- its illegal!!!

fuckers.

[smallcat88]

14. About time

Now for the rest of the states battling these voter restrictions . . .

We need more news like this.

[santamargarita]

15. Good!

[rhett o rick]

16. Great news. nm

[riqster]

17. And this is a PERMANENT order.

Husted finally waved the white flag.

[EEO]

18. Good.

[saidsimplesimon]

19. babsbunny, the wars in the court continue, we need to

press Congress to pass voter legislation to correct the SCOTUS rulings allowing corporations to dictate policy by injecting money and greed into politics. It's a non-violent fight to the finish. I'm in it to win it. imho

[greatlaurel]

20. Hurray!

That is an unexpected bit of really good news for our state. Our state supreme court is fully owned by the monied interests and is a danger to every Ohioan.

Thank you, Judge Economus!