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Judicial Watch Statement on Ohio Court's Ruling in Early Voting Case

Judicial Watch and Allied Educational Foundation Victory on Amicus Brief Supporting Ohio Absentee Voting Period Law: Current Law "applies even-handedly to all voters"

Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5172
 
WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton today made the following statement in response to the ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversing a district court decision and upholding an Ohio law that shortens the state's absentee voting period from 35 to 29 days (Ohio Democratic Party v. Husted (No. 16-3561)):

    "It is rewarding that the appeals court took the position advocated by Judicial Watch and the Allied Educational Foundation (AEF). Early voting is a bad public policy that unduly burdens the taxpayers, increases the likelihood of fraud, and confuses voters," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "It was absurd and dishonest to suggest that racism was behind the sensible reform of cutting back early voting from an excessive 35 days before Election Day. The Left's attack on election integrity, in partnership with the Obama Justice Department, doesn't bode well for a clean November election."

In its opinion the court wrote:

    [P]laintiffs complain that allowance of 29 days of early voting does not suffice under federal law. They insist that Ohio's prior accommodation—35 days of early voting, which also created a six-day "Golden Week" opportunity for same-day registration and voting—established a federal floor that Ohio may add to but never subtract from. This is an astonishing proposition. Nearly a third of the states offer no early voting.…The issue is not whether some voter somewhere would benefit from six additional days of early voting or from the opportunity to register and vote at the same time. Rather, the issue is whether the challenged law results in a cognizable injury under the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act. We conclude that it does not.

In July 2016, Judicial Watch joined with the AEF in filing an amici curiae brief with the Court of Appeals arguing that if it failed to reverse the lower court ruling, it "risks issuing a judgment that is not only wrong, but perverse, in that it might lead to lower voter turnout in direct contravention of one of the basic purposes of the Voting Rights Act."

The case before the Sixth Circuit came on appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, where the lower court struck down an Ohio law shortening the state's absentee voting period from 35 to 29 days. The district court ruled that the six-day reduction would disproportionately burden African Americans:

    [A]lthough the Court cannot predict how many African Americans will turn out in future elections, it is reasonable to conclude from this evidence that their right to vote will be modestly burdened by S.B. 238's reduction in the EIP [early in-person] voting period and elimination of SDR [same day registration].

Countering the district court's position, the Judicial Watch/AEF brief cited a June 2016 report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) about the "depressant effect" of early voting:

MORE: www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-statement-ohio-courts-ruling-early-voting-case