The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Mahoning County man could be tried a fifth time for the murder of an Austintown woman, despite previous mistrials, hung juries and legal proceedings that have stretched over a dozen plus years. With the threat of a referendum looming, lawmakers later repealed the bill.
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August 2016: The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overrules Judge Watson’s decision.
Ohio Democrats had appealed to the High Court to reinstate an extra week that allowed voters to both register to vote and cast an early ballot on the same day.
The appeals court on Tuesday affirmed the ruling of a lower court rejecting absentee-ballot requirements for birthdate and address entries. The decision also struck down similar laws in Kansas, where at least 20,000 potential Kansas voters were denied the opportunity to cast a ballot since the law took effect in 2013.
Golden Week was created to make it easier to vote in OH after lengthy lines at polling locations marred the 2004 election.
The Supreme Court has traditionally been reluctant to impose voting changes in the days leading up to an election. It was first introduced in 2005, after voters complained about long lines at the polls the year before.
At issue in the case were several changes on absentee and provisional ballot requirements Ohio’s Republican-led legislature passed in 2014.
“This period has played an exceptional, historic role in promoting voter registration and turnout in the past two presidential elections, especially in minority communities”, Ohio Democrats said.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling about an early voting period in OH known as “Golden Week”.
The Supreme Court’s brief order did not note any dissenting votes on the short-handed eight-member court, evenly divided between liberal and conservative justices.
In Tuesday’s separate 6th Circuit ruling on the counting of absentee ballots under another OH law, the judicial panel voted 2-1 to reject the state’s requirement that voters’ identifying information on ballot envelopes be precise.
“Ohio Republicans can keep trying to make it harder for people to vote, but we will continue to fight them at every turn”, Pepper said in a statement. “It has been a central value of the Democratic Party that we support greater voter participation – regardless of party”.
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Husted has called the lawsuit politically motivated and says it’s part of a trend of unelected federal judges writing Ohio’s elections laws. In 2012, they were more than five times as likely. “Ohioans want an efficient and secure election and it is time for these wasteful lawsuits to end”. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted noted there were no justices who were opposed to the decision not to hear the case.
