“Golden Week”, the five-day period in which Ohio residents can simultaneously register and vote, will be restored under a ruling a federal judge made this week.
U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus issued a preliminary injunction Thursday ordering the state to establish at least two additional days of early voting in October, as well as evening hours during the week of Oct. 20. Counties would have the right to tack on additional voting hours too.
The ruling is the latest chapter in Ohio’s early voting saga, and a setback for Ohio Gov. John R Kasich and Secretary of State Jon A. Husted. Both Republicans say measures to reduce early voting are an effort to make voting hours across the state more uniform. In February, Kasich signed into law a bill that eliminated Golden Week, effectively reducing the early voting period to 28 days from 35 days. Husted also issued a directive that lopped off evening and weekend hours. Such measures were necessary to reduce fraud, save money and create uniformity across the state, Kasich and his supporters have said.
The “ruling kicks the door open to having different rules for voting in each of Ohio’s 88 counties, which is not fair and uniform,” Husted said in a statement.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by several civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People of Ohio, and several African-American churches. Economus ruled that the reductions would disproportionately hurt low-income and minority voters, many of whom overwhelmingly use Golden Week to cast ballots. African-American churches, in particular, have taken advantage of the week by providing congregates transportation to and from the polls after services.
According to a study cited in the ruling on early voting in the greater Cleveland area, “African-American voters cast an estimated 77.9 perfect of all” early votes in 2008.
In 2012, 1.9 million out of 5.6 million votes were cast early, according to the Ohio secretary of state’s office.
“This ruling will safeguard the vote for thousands of Ohioans during the midterm election,” said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, in a press release. “If these cuts had been allowed to remain in place, many voters would have lost a critical opportunity to participate in our democratic process this November. This is a huge victory for Ohio voters and for all those who believe in protecting the integrity of our elections.”
Early in-person voting will now begin Sept. 30, not Oct. 7.
The state will review the ruling before deciding whether to appeal, said Republican Mike DeWine, a spokesman for the state attorney general.
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2014.