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Mahoning commissioners support extended voting hours
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County commissioners voiced their collective support for the fight to extend voting hours here and abroad.
Commissioners, at a meeting Thursday, approved a resolution asking the county prosecutor to draft a memo in support of President Barack Obama’s campaign fight against changes in early voting as ordered by Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted.
The Obama campaign sued after changes in state law allowed men and women serving in the military to cast early ballots on the three days before Election Day but barred all other eligible voters from doing so.
The campaign argued all eligible voters should be allowed the same early-voting opportunities and sought to force Husted to open polls on those days.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, the legal counsel for Husted, countered that it was constitutional for the state to offer special accommodations to military voters not offered to others.
Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti said the matter should be a simple one to figure out.
“We should not have to be doing this. ... This is America; let the people vote,” he said.
Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said she has worked with boards of elections for many years and takes issue with the changes in state law.
U.S. District Court Judge Peter C. Economus, a Youngstown native, earlier this month sided with the Obama campaign, ordering Husted to restore the three days of early voting. Husted and DeWine are appealing the decision to a federal appeals court.
In other business, commissioners issued a proclamation to Richard Hahn of Boardman as the YMCA’s Joe Check Memorial Volunteer of the Year.
Hahn, a 55-year member of the YMCA, and a graduate of Ursuline High School and Youngstown State University, said he is honored to receive the proclamation from commissioners and award from the YMCA.
“My father died when I was 8 years old, so some of the first memories I have of great male role models come from the YMCA,” Hahn said. “The Y is still my first love, and I try to get there every day if I can.”