COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A federal judge has overturned a recent Ohio state law and restored in-person, early voting for the final three days leading up to Election Day.
The lawsuit was brought by President Barack Obama's campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party which sought to overturn a new law that would have shutdown early voting after 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 2 until the polls opened on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Judge Peter C. Economus of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled that the new statute is unconstitutional.
It "is unconstitutional to the extent it changes the deadline for in-person early voting from the close of business on the day before Election Day to 6 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day," the ruling reads.
The ruling goes on to say that "in-person early voting is restored on the three days immediately preceding Election Day for all eligible Ohio voters."
The law had made an exception allowing for in-person early voting over that final weekend for military personnel, voters who fell under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act, or UOCAVA. Supporters of the law said that eliminating early voting over those final three days could hurt those voters who otherwise might have more limited access to voting.
But the judge took a different view, saying that opening in-person early voting over those final three days to all voters would not harm those military families. Instead, Economus said the only harm to those voters was that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, had not set uniform hours for voting over that final weekend.
"This court notes that restoring in-person early voting to all Ohio voters through the Monday before Election Day does not deprive UOCAVA voters from early voting," the judge ruled. "Instead, and more importantly, it places all Ohio voters on equal standing.
"The only hindrance to UOCAVA early voting is the Secretary of State's failure to set uniform hours at elections boards during the last three days before Election Day," Economus wrote.
The judge also rejected the state's argument that forcing the 88 boards of elections to remain open over that final weekend could create financial and other challenges at the local levels.
"There is no definitive evidence before the court that elections boards will be tremendously burdened," the judge wrote. "Certainly, the public interest is served by restoring in-person early voting to all voters."
Thousands of people in Cuyahoga County used in-person early voting in final weekend before the 2008 election which is believed to have been a huge boost for Obama, who won Ohio on his way to being elected president.
