ACLU, Husted settle lawsuit over early voting schedule

A settlement for a voting rights lawsuit filed Friday in federal court will preserve a ban on the so-called “Golden Week” but will establish evening and Sunday hours for early voting for several weeks before next year’s presidential election and through 2018.

The settlement, announced by Secretary of State Jon Husted and by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, ends a court fight launched last year by the ACLU on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the League of Women Voters of Ohio and several African-American churches.

“Ohioans are the winners here,” said Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio. “Thousands rely on early voting opportunities to cast a ballot in an election. This settlement restores Sunday and evening hours in all 88 counties, meaning more voters will have a better chance to actually vote.”

Husted, too, championed the settlement.

“This agreement is a victory for Ohio voters. With the issues that accompany the 2016 presidential election drawing nearer it is important that we resolve these lingering questions now. Ohio has been and will remain a state where it is easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

The suit sought to block changes enacted by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. John Kasich that eliminated the in-person voting period called “Golden Week.” During Golden Week, Ohioans could both register to vote and cast an absentee ballot in person through early voting at their local boards of election.

The suit also sought to force Husted to set early, in-person voting hours on multiple weekdays and Sundays. Husted had previously released a statewide, uniform early voting schedule that excluded Sundays, ruling out “Souls to the Polls” voting drives by African-American churches.

The settlement specifies that the secretary of state can set uniform hours across the state. That is something Husted has insisted on, arguing that voters should have the same opportunities to cast early ballots, regardless of which county they live in.

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