Obama/ODP Win; Judge Reopens Three-Day Early Voting Window

Well, THIS could get interesting. A federal judge has restored the three-day in person early voting window the three days prior to Election Day.

http://www.ohiocapitalblog.com/

They are the heaviest in-person early voting days and the Republicans attempted to eliminate them to prevent the flood of primarily urban voters who made us of them in 2008. First they passed HB 194 which did away with them. Then they passed a substitute bill so that after they legislatively repealed HB 194 (which had qualified for a voter repeal referendum, making the move legally dubious) the three-day voting window ban would remain in place.

The Obama campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party sued in federal court on the grounds that active-duty military personnel were still allowed to vote in person these three days and so everyone should be in order to have equal voting rights.

That was when we saw the Republicans push yet another completely false narrative – that Democrats and President Obama were trying to take away voting rights from military. They weren't. They wanted everyone to have the right to vote at their board of elections the three days before the election.

It will be interesting to see what the Republicans do next. They can appeal, of course, and I assume they will. They could also turn around and shut down the three-day window for everybody, making THEM the ones depriving active-duty military of some voting opportunities.

I wouldn't put this past them. We see the spectacle of Republicans going over the top to cling to any election edge they have, no matter how unethical, anti-democratic, or ill-gotten. They're pumping out lie after desperate lie about Voters First Ohio, which would replace partisan redistricting with a fair system. And they are working frantically to keep as many Democratic-leaning voters away from the polls as they can. Would they sacrifice active-duty military in this pursuit? It's possible.