Republican voter laws face scrutiny as Obama victories increase

WASHINGTON — Time is running out for judges to resolve voter access lawsuits in states, including Ohio and Florida, where a few thousand votes may be the margin of victory between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati is considering Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s bid to overturn rulings blocking Republican-sponsored restrictions on early voting and provisional ballots. In Pennsylvania, voters are waiting to hear whether courts will enforce laws requiring them to show photo identification at the polls.

“The sooner these matters can be resolved the better,” Matt McClellan, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, said in a telephone interview. “They’re in an expedited process and we hope they will be resolved well in advance of the election.”

Much of the litigation stems from revisions of election procedures Republican lawmakers passed after Obama’s election in 2008. Proponents argue the laws are needed to prevent fraud and help elections run smoothly. Democrats and voter advocacy groups claim the measures are aimed at disenfranchising probable Democratic voters in a veiled effort to limit turnout for Obama.

There are at least 15 cases pending nationwide over election law limits on early voting, voter registration and voter identification. Of those, almost half are in states where both candidates contend they can win. A majority of cases that have led to court rulings so far have been decided in favor of opponents to new restrictions.

In Wisconsin on Thursday, opponents of a voter ID law won a court victory almost guaranteeing the requirement won’t be in place there for the Nov. 6 election.

“It’s not unprecedented to have these last-minute lawsuits over voting process,” Edward Foley, director of the election law program at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law in Columbus, said in a telephone interview. “They’ve just snowballed since Bush v. Gore.” The presidential election in 2000 was decided in that case by the Supreme Court.

This month, Republican-sponsored measures continued to suffer adverse court rulings. Initiatives aimed at purging noncitizens from the rolls in Iowa and Texas were put on hold, while Pennsylvania’s voter ID law was sent back to a lower court for review. And New Hampshire was forced to end a plan to require college students to register their vehicles in the state in order to vote.

Florida, with 29 electoral votes, combines with Pennsylvania and Ohio to make up almost 25 percent of the 270 needed to secure the presidency.

Two of the most significant challenges, Foley said, involve voting laws in Ohio where Obama and Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, both see a path to victory. No Republican has been elected president without carrying Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes.

Obama won the state by 262,224 votes in 2008. Former President George W. Bush won Ohio by 118,775 votes in 2004. A Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll this week said Obama has a 53 percent to 43 percent advantage there over Romney.

A federal judge in Ohio, ruling Aug. 31 in a lawsuit filed by Obama’s campaign, ordered the restoration of three days of early voting for all citizens that the Republican-controlled legislature cut back to members of the armed services and few others. In that case, Obama for America claimed as support for its case that, in the three days leading up to the 2008 election, 93,000 Ohio voters cast their ballots.

The judge ruled that it was unconstitutional to take away three days of early voting for most citizens in the state while allowing Ohioans serving in the military to have them.

DeWine, a Republican, appealed, arguing that Ohio previously has allowed such a distinction between military voters and civilian voters. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati agreed to expedite Ohio’s appeal, though it has yet to schedule an argument. Early voting in Ohio begins Oct. 2.

In Pennsylvania, the state supreme court on Sept. 18 set aside a lower-court ruling upholding a voter ID law and asked the judge to revisit his decision. The judge was told to assess whether all citizens will be able to obtain allowable forms of ID. The state high court, in its 4-2 decision, asked Commonwealth Court Judge Richard Simpson, a Republican, to submit a supplemental opinion by Oct. 2. He held hearings on the matter this week.

Two Democratic justices dissented from the majority’s move, saying they would have blocked the law outright. They chastised their colleagues for sending the case back to Simpson less than two months before the election.

“The eyes of the nation are upon us,” Justice Debra McCloskey Todd wrote, “and this court has chosen to punt rather than to act.”

A state analysis found Pennsylvania’s photo ID requirement might exclude as many as 759,000 eligible voters, or 9 percent of its electorate, from voting in the presidential election. In 2008, Obama won the state by 620,478 votes.

The Quinnipiac poll said Obama has a 54 percent to 42 percent advantage over Romney in the state.

Wisconsin’s attempt to revive its new voter ID law in time for the election failed yesterday before that state’s supreme court. Two lower court judges found the new law unconstitutional in separate decisions earlier this year.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard Neiss in Madison rejected the law in March in a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin. Judge David Flanagan in Madison ruled the law invalid in July in a suit brought by the Milwaukee branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican, asked the state’s highest court last month to immediately review the decisions. Neiss had denied the delay request in March, and a state appeals court agreed. Flanagan denied the stay request Sept. 14 in the NAACP case, citing the impending election.

“The inescapable reality is that the need for stability, predictability and adequate preparation for the electoral process strongly weighs against this court granting a stay and thus changing the voting process at this late hour,” Flanagan wrote. Thursday, the state Supreme Court refused a stay as well.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s action means the state’s voter ID law is dead for this election, said Susan Crawford, an attorney for the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

Obama won Wisconsin by 414,818 votes in 2008.

In Iowa, that state has given up on a Republican-backed effort to purge noncitizens from the voter registration rolls after a state judge Sept. 14 said the process would probably create confusion for legitimate voters.

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a Republican, isn’t going to appeal the ruling temporarily barring the state from using emergency-procedures to purge the rolls, said Chad Olsen, his spokesman.

“Given the reality of the time constraints there wouldn’t be any resolution before the election,” Olsen said. “For this election, we’re done.”

Obama won Iowa in 2008 by 146,651 votes.

Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, lost a federal court bid to throw out a challenge to his initiative to purge noncitizens from voter registration rolls ahead of the election.

U.S. District Judge James Whittemore in Tampa ruled that a complaint alleging the program requires pre-clearance under the Voting Rights Act, in part because of historical discrimination against minorities, may proceed. The judge wrote that he will rule at a later date on whether the state effort to purge voter rolls is subject to the federal voting law.

Republicans did score a few victories in voter law challenges in September, one of which also involved Florida.

On Sept. 24, a federal judge in Jacksonville ruled the state doesn’t need to provide 96 hours of early voting in all counties for the election.

That ruling is separate from a federal case in Washington where Florida agreed to keep 96 hours of early voting in five counties covered under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

In the 2008 election, 54 percent of black voters in Florida voted early — twice the rate for whites, according to court filings. A report paid for by the Democratic National Committee stated that 1.1 million blacks voted in Florida in 2008. Obama won there by 236,450 votes.

The Quinnipiac poll this week gave Obama a 53 percent to 44 percent lead in Florida over Romney.