 A federal judge in Ohio on Friday granted a request from President Barack Obama's campaign to give all voters in the swing state the option of casting their ballot in person during the three days before Election Day. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Peter C. Economus ordered Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted not to enforce a state law passed last year that closed that window to in-person early voting to anyone but members of the military and their families. “The only hindrance to (military) early voting is the Secretary of State’s failure to set uniform hours at elections boards during the last three days before Election Day,’’ he wrote. Economus had pointed out to them during an early hearing that Ohioans can cast ballots by other methods _ in person on Election Day or by mail beginning 35 days before the election. “This Court anticipates that Defendant Secretary of State will direct all Ohio elections boards to maintain a specific, consistent schedule on those three days, in keeping with his earlier directive that only by doing so can he ensure that Ohio’s election process is ‘uniform, accessible for all, fair, and secure’,’’ Judge Economus wrote.
– A federal judge today struck down a new Ohio law that forbids early voting in the three days before Election Day for non-military voters, the Toledo Blade reports. Ohio has long allowed voters to cast absentee ballots by mail or in person starting 35 days before the election, but the law, passed last year, would set a deadline of 6pm on Friday to do so, for everyone except military members. The Obama administration challenged the law, saying it arbitrarily gave the military special treatment, and the judge agreed. "Restoring in-person early voting to all Ohio voters through the Monday before Election Day does not deprive (military) voters," he wrote in his decision. "Instead, and more importantly, it places all Ohio voters on equal standing." Ohio's lawyers had argued that many laws already grant military voters special privileges, and that local boards needed the three-day respite to prepare for the election, the AP reports.