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Ohio Dems continue appeal for weekend voting hours
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Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has no plans to alter uniform voting in Ohio. In Mahoning County, commissioners have agreed to open the Board of Elections for weekend voting in October, but Husted’s office says voting machines won’t be turned on.
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Democrats in the Ohio House continued to call on Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted to allow extended early voting, saying weekend hours were needed to avoid long lines on Election Day.
Minority Leader Armond Budish, from the Cleveland area, and others said Husted’s directive ordering elections boards to offer early in-person voting during specified hours on weekdays would not provide equal treatment for all voters.
Instead, Budish said, the uniform hours would hamper turnout in higher population urban areas, providing fewer opportunities for Ohioans to cast ballots.
But Husted indicated Wednesday that he’s not going to change his mind.
“Voting in Ohio is uniform, accessible, fair and secure. This year with the combination of absentee ballots and early in-person voting, Ohioans will have more access to voting than ever before,” he said in a released statement. “Early voting starts 35 days before the election, and there are more than 750 hours to vote by mail and 230 hours to vote in person, plus all day on Election Day. The rules are set and are not going to change.”
Budish, Clyde and two other House Democrats voiced their concerns during a Statehouse press conference one week after Husted issued a directive mandating regular business hours for elections boards during the weeks before the Nov. 6 election and blocking Saturday or Sunday polling.
Mahoning County commissioners voted unanimously to open Oakhill Renaissance Place for weekend early voting in defiance of the ban on weekend voting at boards of elections. On Tuesday, the commissioners adopted a resolution to open Oakhill, where the county board of elections is housed, on the first three weekends in October, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. The resolution, designed to facilitate in-person early voting on the October weekends at the elections board, 345 Oak Hill Ave., said the board of elections has sufficient funds to pay for the extra hours of operation.
But Husted’s office said that although the commissioners may open a building, they are not permitted to turn on the voting machines.
Husted ordered uniform statewide voting hours amid increasing criticism and national attention on recent tie-breaking votes to limit half a dozen counties from offering extended voting hours — moves that opponents said hampered early in-person votes in Democratic-leaning counties while allowing extended hours in Republican-leaning ones.
The set hours for all counties, Husted argued, meant that voters in all 88 counties would have the same opportunities to vote, whether in person during early hours on Election Day or through the mail during Ohio’s absentee balloting.
The Columbus Dispatch contributed to this report.