CAMPAIGN 2012

Obama Campaign Sues Ohio to Bring Back Early Voting

Updated: July 18, 2012 | 1:07 p.m.
July 18, 2012 | 12:42 p.m.

President Obama's reelection campaign has filed a lawsuit against Ohio's top election official to overturn the state legislature restricting early voting, The Associated Press reported. Ohio, of course, is a key battleground state that Obama won in 2008.

The suit was filed on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, claiming the state law that prohibits in-person early voting in the three days before Election Day in November is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The campaign argues that it is unfair for the law to end in-person early voting because it allows military and overseas voters to cast ballots in-person until that Monday, one day before Election Day.

In 2008, about 30 percent of all ballots cast in Ohio were before Election Day. Nearly 100,000 of them were in-person in the final three days.

Obama for America, the Democratic National Committee, and the Ohio Democratic Party all joined in the suit.

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