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Ohio Statehouse Democrats and John Husted Disagree Over Early Voting Rules

Several counties won’t be allowing in-person voting the weekend before the election, including Franklin, Montgomery and Lucas. Democrats, including party chair Rep. Chris Redfern, say a ruling in a lawsuit on early voting last year requires in person voting the weekend before the election.

“We’ve been through this before and it’s time for Secretary Husted to tell the counties that are not following state and federal law to open their doors and let people vote as the law provides," Redfern said.

But Jon Husted’s spokesman Matt McClellan says there’s no law that requires in person voting this weekend, so his boss has asked lawmakers to settle this.

“The secretary has sent them a letter asking that they address this issue, that they set uniform days and hours, they put it into code, they make sure it has bipartisan support," McClellan said.

Democrats say the law requires in person voting up until election day for military voters, and that a federal court ruling last year required all voters to be allowed the same access. But McClellan says voting hours must be set by county boards, since hours aren’t established in state law.

Nick Castele was a senior reporter covering politics and government for Ideastream Public Media. He worked as a reporter for Ideastream from 2012-2022.