Early Voting Can Proceed In Ohio, Court Rules

Early voting will be able to continue in Ohio, as a desperate final attempt by Ohio Republicans to end the voting the weekend before Election Day was rejected by the US Supreme Court.

“The application for stay presented to Justice [Elena] Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court noted in a brief statement along with the decision.

Last week a three-judge panel came down on the side of President Obama’s campaign and blocked a law that would have stopped early voting three days before the election, but Ohio Secretary of State John Husted had refused to enforce the decision, The Huffington Post reported.

As the report noted, Husted remained adamant that early voting should not be allowed on that weekend. The court victory will be boost for the Obama campaign. In 2008 the weekend before the election was a prime voting period for minorities, and early voting was seen as one of the contributing factors to Obama’s victor in Ohio that year.

As The Associated Press reported, early voting, which is allowed in 34 states and the District of Columbia, went heavily toward Obama in 2008. Close to 30 percent of all voting, or about 1.7 million ballots, came before Election Day that year.

Early voting has been robust for Obama so far, with polls showing a large advantage in the number of Democrats voting early versus Republicans. For Obama the early voting is a chance to build an advantage before Republicans can unleash a number of advertisements in the coming weeks. Republicans have an advantage in terms of money combined between the campaign and Super PACs, allowing them to soak the swing states with advertisements leading up to the election.