Of course not. But that's a separate issue, and that's really up to each state to solve.
It's fast becoming a national issue...many of the laws and actions taken by states like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina were reversed or put on hold by courts. Sooner or later this issue, a republican motivated issue by the way, will come to the USSC.
The accusation that Republicans want to "disenfranchise" voters is unfounded.
Kidding right?
Former governor Charlie Crist (R-FL) and former GOP chairman Jim Greer (R-FL), as well as several current GOP members, told the Post that Republican consultants pushed the new measures as a way to suppress Democratic voters. Crist expanded early voting hours in 2008 despite party pressure, but Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) targeted early voting almost immediately when he took office in 2011. Scott’s administration claimed the new laws were meant to curb in-person voter fraud, despite the fact that an individual in Florida is more likely to be struck by lightning than commit voter fraud.
and this...
Four years ago, early voting was a option for each of the five weekends during the voting period. This year that was reduced to one. Some Ohio election boards, particularly in urban counties, have been reporting that fewer people have so far taken advantage of the in-person early-vote option this year, when polls until now have been open only on workdays.
But the Ohio secretary of state’s office said Saturday that, statewide, 1.6 million people had voted by mail or in person as of Friday, a figure that puts the state on track to top 2008 early-vote tallies.
In Cuyahoga, 36,578 had voted as of Friday; in 2008, that number was 43,402 . In 2008, there were nine additional early voting days here, and 9,933 people voted on those days.
More than 3,000 people voted Saturday.
Republican state leaders had sought to allow only military voters to cast ballots this weekend as well, but Democrats won a court battle arguing that if polls were open to some, they must be open to all.
That means Obama’s effort here hinges on getting a huge turnout this weekend, particularly Sunday when buses will roll straight from church services to the polls.
“The more people who vote in Ohio, the better President Obama’s chances of winning there are,” the campaign’s national field director, Jeremy Bird, wrote in a memo to reporters Friday. A study released last month by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law underscored why early voting favored Democrats.
The study found that black voters — who overwhelmingly favor Obama — used early in-person voting at approximately 26 times the rate of white voters.
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Here is how the court case on the ballot issue ended up in Ohio...
cleveland.com
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