Ohio secretary of state to appeal fed court decision on voting to U.S. Supreme Court

COLUMBUS — Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted today announced he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to make the final determination on whether the Ohio General Assembly or the federal courts should set Ohio election laws.

Husted will be appealing the Friday decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Obama v. Husted.

“This is an unprecedented intrusion by the federal courts into how states run elections and because of its impact on all 50 states as to who and how elections will be run in America we are asking the Supreme Court to step in and allow Ohioans to run Ohio elections," Husted said.

“This ruling not only doesn’t make legal sense, it doesn’t make practical sense. The court is saying that all voters must be treated the same way under Ohio law, but also grants Ohio’s 88 elections boards the authority to establish 88 different sets of rules. That means that one county may close down voting for the final weekend while a neighboring county may remain open. How any court could consider this a remedy to an equal protection problem is stunning," he added.