September 25, 2008

CONTACT: Sarah Massey, 202 445-1169

COLUMBUS, OHIO—Lawyers for Project Vote and other voting rights organizations are coordinating efforts in a legal battle to protect Ohio’s five-day Same-Day Registration (SDR) period from lawsuits filed by two Republican voters.

Under voting laws passed by the Ohio legislature in 2006, there currently exists a five-day overlap between the first day to request an absentee ballot (September 30) and the last day to register to vote (October 6). This window allows Ohio residents to register, request a ballot, and cast that ballot all on the same day: a convenience that will benefit first-time voters, voters with limited transportation, and low-income and working families who can’t afford to miss work or pay for child care to register and vote on multiple days.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued directives instructing election officials to permit new registrants to cast absentee ballots during the five-day SDR window. These ballots would be counted at least 30 days later on Election Day, and in the interim boards of election would have time to verify the registration applications.

Republicans controlled the Ohio legislature that passed the laws in 2006, but Republican voters are challenging Secretary Brunner’s directive. They now see the SDR window as an accidental loophole and have filed suit to close it. Their argument is that Ohio law requires a 30-day waiting period between registration and requesting an absentee ballot.

Teresa James, attorney for Project Vote, explains that this is an incorrect interpretation of the law. “The law in Ohio does not require 30 days between registering and casting an absentee ballot,” James explains. “The law requires 30 days between registering and the counting of your vote. Absentee ballots are not counted until Election Day, so there is no violation here. Furthermore, the ruling the objecting voters are requesting would effectively make felons out of every Ohio voter who asked for an absentee ballot less than 30 days after registering to vote.”

On Tuesday, the group—led by the Ohio ACLU and Ohio State University professor Dan Tojaki, and including Project Vote, Demos, the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights Under Law, the League of Women Voters, and other organizations—filed an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court, urging the Court to rule and uphold Ohio’s current procedures.

Yesterday, the group, with Project Vote, the Northeast Coalition for the Homeless, 1Matters and individual Ohio voters as plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Madison County Ohio Board of Elections, which has declined to honor Secretary Brunner’s directives. The suit asks for an injunction and a declaratory judgment that refusing to permit voters to register and cast absentee ballots during the five-day period would violate federal law, specifically the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965.

Currently nine states allow Same-Day Registration, and many of these offer Election Day Registration (EDR). According to Stuart Comstock-Gay of Demos, “voters have benefited greatly, and reports show that EDR/SDR can be administered efficiently, at low cost, and without threatening the integrity of elections.”

“The plaintiffs are essentially asking the Ohio Supreme Court to rewrite state law from the bench,” says James. “But the current Ohio laws and the VRA are clear, and the SDR period is a positive reform that can only benefit Ohio voters and increase participation at the polls. The only effect of shutting this window down would be to discourage voting among low-income and minority working voters of Ohio."