New Voting Hours and Fake Voting Issues

Secretary of State Jon Husted issued an appeal to the Federal Judge which will provide continued uncertainty as we approach the November election.  He issued a statement claiming that he is forced to appeal to keep things fair throughout the state:

“Though I have complied with the recent ruling by Judge Economus, I must appeal his decision because in allowing counties to set their own schedules, he has once again opened the door to having a patchwork of rules across the state, which is in direct conflict with his previous rulings that insisted upon treating all voters equally."

This is not what the ruling says in fact.  Similar hours throughout the state does not mean equality.  It just means that small counties with a few voters get to stay open the exact same time as the big counties with hundreds of thousands of voters.  We have to wait in lines while they get easy access to the Board of Elections.  How is that equality?   None of the articles give the other side of the story from the Husted position on equality.  Homeless people are especially grateful for the expansion of voting hours to include a week in which they will be able to vote and change their address at the same time.  Here are the hours that Husted has demanded:

  • 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30 through Friday, Oct. 3, 2014
  • 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6
  • 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7 through Friday, Oct. 10
  • 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14 through Friday, Oct. 17
  • 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20 through Friday, Oct. 24
  • 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25
  • 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26
  • 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27 through Friday, Oct. 31
  • 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1
  • 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2
  • 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3

The directive did not indicate that the Board could adopt local hours as the federal court had instructed.  It will be interesting to see if Cuyahoga County adopts additional hours for the week of Sept. 30.  They did not have a board meeting set until October 7, but I understand there is an attempt to organize an early board meeting.  Then it will interesting to see if the board split the vote 2 votes by the Democrats wanting expanded hours and 2 votes for the Republicans maintaining a state wide standard.  Then will the Secretary of State break the tie for expanded hours or maintaining his "equality" for rural communities illusion.  We shall see over the next week.

Brian Davis

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Chris KnestrickGolden week, eearly voting