Obama campaign sues Ohio to restore state’s early-voting days

The Obama campaign filed a lawsuit with the state of Ohio Tuesday afternoon in an effort to bring back three days of early voting removed by the state’s Republican-controlled state legislature.

The campaign wants to restore three days of early voting that come just before Election Day on Nov. 6. The campaign maintains that delaying the early-voting days is unfair to voters who are in the military and vote early. The campaign lawsuit says that the new law violates a constitutional equal protection provision.

{mosads}According to The Akron Journal Beacon, the legislature passed election-reform legislation that ends absentee in-person early voting at 6 p.m. on Friday before Election Day. Democrats in the state collected 300,000 signatures in an effort to repeal the new voting reform.

The campaign filed a motion for preliminary injunction and a complaint for declaratory and injuctive relief with Ohio.

“For the past seven years, Ohioans have been able to cast their votes before Election Day, ensuring that the broken system that silenced so many Ohio voters in 2004 would never happen again,” a joint statement by Obama campaign Ohio senior adviser Aaron Pickerell, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) said in a statement. “Early Vote has proven to be an effective way for Ohioans to make their voices heard.”

The three Democrats say the final three days before election day are particularly important.

“The last three days of Early Vote are especially important to ensuring a free and fair election,” the statement continues. “That is why today, we are moving forward in the fight to reinstate the last three days of Early Voting and ensure that all Ohio voters can make their voices heard this November.”

The suit was filed with the United States District Court of the Southern District of Eastern Ohio.

Read the complaint for declaratory and injuctive relief below: