Golden Week voting gets necessary judicial review

The latest legal battle over voting rights in Ohio centers on this question: Were black residents denied reasonable access to the ballot box when the Republican-controlled General Assembly reduced the early-voting period, thereby eliminating the so-called Golden Week?

A federal judge certainly believes so – as evidenced by his recent ruling in a case filed by the Ohio Democratic Party and the Cuyahoga and Montgomery county Democratic parties.

“Based on the evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that the reduction in overall time to vote will burden the right to vote of African-Americans, who use [early in-person] voting significantly more than other voters,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson of Columbus.

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, who has long argued that the current 28-day early-voting period is one of the most-generous in the nation, wasted little time in appealing Judge Watson’s ruling.

As noted by the Columbus Dispatch, Watson was the chief counsel to former Republican Gov. Bob Taft, who had served as secretary of state for two terms. Judge Watson was appointed to the federal bench by former Republican President George W. Bush.

The reduction of the early-voting period from 35 to 28 days by the GOP- controlled Legislature violated the U.S. Constitution and Voting Rights Act of 2014, the judge ruled.

That reduction resulted in the elimination of Golden Week, during which eligible residents could register to vote and cast an absentee ballot at the same time.

In his ruling, Judge Watson pointed out that blacks took advantage of the opportunity 31/2 times as often as white voters in 2008, and more than 5 times as often in 2012.

But Husted, who has filed the appeal with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, contended that Golden Week has become an “administrative problem” and a “voter-integrity issue.”

‘Potential for voter fraud’

“Out-of-state voters were illegally registering to vote and casting ballots during this period,” the secretary of state said in a statement. “Eliminating Golden Week reduced the potential for voter fraud.”

Husted added that his goal of making it easy to vote and hard to cheat has been fulfilled with the changes that have been implemented. Weekend and weekday hours for in-person absentee voting were the compromise forged by various groups, including the NAACP and the ACLU.

The secretary of state added that Judge Watson’s ruling breaks the compromise.

But state Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper blasted Republican Gov. John Kasich, Husted and other Republicans for their ongoing efforts to compromise Ohioans’ right to vote.

“It’s a shame that once again our Legislature, governor, attorney general [Republican Mike DeWine] and secretary of state cannot figure out how to abide by the constitutional rights of their own voters,” Pepper said.

The ruling by Judge Watson is important because it sets the stage for judicial reviews of Ohio’s voting procedures by the appeals court and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court.

We say perhaps because the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia has left the court with eight justices, resulting in a possible 4-4 ideological split on cases with national ramifications.

In a purely political move, the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate has refused to schedule a hearing on Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination to the high court. The Republicans, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, have said the next president should fill the vacancy on the court.

The president has nominated Judge Merrick Garland, who won confirmation in 1997 to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit with the backing from a majority of both parties, including seven current Republican senators.

Because of GOP inaction, a case as important as the one involving Golden Week voting could well get caught up in the 4-4 split in the Supreme Court.

Given that, it would have served the cause of increased voter participation had Husted embraced Judge Watson’s ruling and and sought legislative reinstatement of Golden Week.