By Kim Palmer
CLEVELAND, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Two Democratic officials in
Ohio, a key battleground state and huge electoral prize in the
Nov. 6 presidential election, may be fired for trying to extend
early voting hours to weekends in defiance of a state ban,
officials said on Monday.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, issued a
directive last week making the hours for early in-person voting
by absentee ballot consistent throughout the state, where voting
rules are a hot-button issue.
Voters will be able to cast absentee ballots from 8 a.m. to
5 p.m. on weekdays for the first three weeks of early voting
beginning Oct. 2 and until 7 p.m. on weekdays for the final two
weeks before the election.
But two Democrats on the Montgomery County elections board,
an area which includes Democratic-leaning Dayton, declined to
implement the directive and voted to allow weekend voting after
it was issued, Husted said in a statement on Monday.
Husted suspended the officials on Friday and sought their
dismissal at a hearing on Monday. Jon Allison, an attorney and
former chief of staff to former Republican Governor Bob Taft, is
expected to recommend whether to fire the officials this week.
“While they are free to disagree with my decision, they are
not free to disobey the law,” Husted said in the statement.
Democrats said that Husted’s directive did not specifically
prohibit additional weekend hours, according to Jerid Kurtz,
spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.
“It’s abundantly clear that Republicans are prepared to do
whatever they need to do in order to game this election in their
favor, including suppressing voters across Ohio,” Ohio
Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern said.
Ohio election boards always have two Democratic and two
Republican members, and the secretary of state serves as the
tie-breaking vote.
Democrats said Husted has been trying to restrict voting in
Democratic-leaning counties. Prior to his directive last week,
some Democratic-leaning counties were not permitted extra hours
while some Republican-leaning counties were. Extended voting is
thought to favor Democrats in Ohio.
Husted said he was committed to making voting “uniform,
easy, fair and secure.”
Also in Ohio, lawyers for President Barack Obama’s
re-election campaign have asked a federal judge to restore early
voting rights for the final days before the election to all
registered voters in the state. A ruling is pending.
(Reporting By Kim Palmer; Editing by Mary Wisniewski, Cynthia
Johnston and Paul Simao)
