BREAKING: Ohio early voting cleared by U.S. Supreme Court in Obama victory (via @BloombergNews)

[ProfessionalLeftist]

Source: ThinkProgress/TPM/Bloomberg

BREAKING: Ohio early voting cleared by U.S. Supreme Court in Obama victory (via @BloombergNews)

The Supreme Court has turned aside a request from the state of Ohio to take up an appeal of federal court decision which prevented the state from stopping early voting during the three day period before the election. The decision is a victory for the Obama campaign, which had successfully argued that Ohio could not allow military and overseas voters to vote during the three day period unless that opportunity was available to all voters.



Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/supreme-court-turns-down-ohio-early-voting-case

[WilliamPitt]

1. WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO

HUGE.

[Raster]

2. AWESOME!

[BeyondGeography]

3. "Without noted dissent..."

http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/10/ohio-rebuffed-on-early-voting/

[caseymoz]

5. They didn't want to further the damage . . .

. . . they did in Bush v. Gore.

[former9thward]

33. Ironically the Obama campaign used Bush v Gore as their argument in their brief to the court.

http://electionlawblog.org/?p=41599

[caseymoz]

42. The court said at the time . . .

. . . their B v. G ruling was not to be taken as a precedent. It's the words of someone who knows he's already slipped down the slope.

[former9thward]

52. Attorneys are ignoring that advice.

I have seen Bush v Gore cited many times by plaintiff attorneys in equal protection suits. In Bush v Gore the court never said it could not be used as precedent.

Their exact language: "The recount process, in its features here described, is inconsistent with the minimum procedures necessary to protect the fundamental right of each voter in the special instance of a statewide recount under the authority of a single state judicial officer. Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities." http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/531/98/case.html

This was in the body of the opinion and was not even mentioned in the conclusion.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

51. That must have stuck in Fat Tony's craw.

[irisblue]

82. second smile at that thought....n/t

[mtasselin]

56. Not Yet

Maybe they have something else planned if it gets to them

[caseymoz]

67. My guess about Roberts is . . .

. . . he's realized that pushing it further would discredit the SCOTUS.

[robinlynne]

79. or a revolution in the streets..... (figuratively speaking)

[caseymoz]

89. That's the likely result of discrediting the Court. nt

[Frustratedlady]

4. Have "they" won any of these vote cases?

I can't remember any. I'm talking about suppression/early, whatever.

[skeewee08]

6. Woo Hoo.... That's what I'm talking about!!!!!

[avebury]

7. Awesome!

[Ninga]

8. Wonderful...postive news to calm my jangled nerves.

[Meandering1]

90. Perhaps but it could all just be a smoke-screen

to cover up a vote switch in November. I still much fear another election fraud situation. Same as in Ohio, 2004 and Florida both 2000 and 2004.

Assuming those stealth players working to get Romney elected through any and all means possible have this scam in place again? Well an early sign would be some kind of collaboration with the major media and pollsters shortly before the election. That Romney can only scam the public if it appears possible he could win. Right now it doesn't. He's just a terrible candidate and it shows.

But if you see the major news sources declaring Romney running close to neck and neck w/Obama in late Oct/early November?

Is a sure sign they intend to pull it off. Thing to do is always believe the exit polls. Not the Diebold, paperLESS election B/shit.

[-Steph-]

9. Great news!!!!

[ashling]

10. This is great

Kicks Husted in the ass and I hope it signals that they are steering clear of electoral politics

[BumRushDaShow]

11. K&R

[xxqqqzme]

12. Husted - Busted

Somebody help him get that egg off his face.

[flamingdem]

13. This is a BAD DAY in RoveLand!

[gopiscrap]

14. DailyKos just coinfirmed it at 937am PDT also

[ProfessionalLeftist]

15. CNN link:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/16/high-court-allows-early-voting-in-ohio/

[leftynyc]

16. Awesome

Glad they refused to even hear the case.

[Megahurtz]

17. HA - HA!

[bocephus0706]

18. great news

Yes we can....and yes we will

[lilithsrevenge12]

19. AWESOME!

[BraKez2]

20. Great News!!!

[hrmjustin]

23. Welcome to DU and yes it is great news.

[BraKez2]

25. Thanks!!

Been lurking reading threads all week; decided I would try to jump in on some today...

[hrmjustin]

26. A great day to join my friend. Welcome!

[reflection]

48. Welcome, my friend.

[gopiscrap]

66. Welcome to DU!!!

[DippyDem]

21. Yippee!! Wish I could rec it more than once!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. Great news!

[hrmjustin]

32. Obama is doing fine in OH. Don't worry about all the bull the media spews. Welcome to DU.

[HERVEPA]

34. More like byebye to DU

[AAO]

40. Didn't you notice his evil grin?

[Chorophyll]

27. Kickety-kick-kick and rec.

[Puglover]

28. Great news!

I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that sleazoid SOS.

[AtomicKitten]

29. Excellent outcome. It would have been a huge mistake if the Supremes had taken this up.

[heaven05]

30. good

precedent set. match!!!!! now on to the usopen.

[kansasobama]

31. Need this as Obama is getting battered by Gallup 46-50

But IPsos-Reuters is up by 3 point.

http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/10/16/reuters-tv-obama-recaptures-lead-over-romney-in-new?videoId=238449653&videoChannel=117850

I do not know what is going on? Gallup is supposed to be the best.

[Iliyah]

53. Kanasobama, gallup is not the best and has been negative towards O

all year. I consider gallup an outlier. Many other national polls show O leading and/or ticking up. Major news outlets are the ones to watch such as ABC which shows O with a three point lead and leading in the swing states.

I even consider PPP an outlier as well, and well ras is another story. O is over 290 in the swing states.

Now back to OH. Thats great news, but Husted is not to be trusted. We live in a democracy and it seems that the GOPpers are trying to take our voting privileges away, how un-patriotic huh.

[Patiod]

92. Gallup has always been more positive for conservatives, no?

Wasn't George Gallup an evangelical Christian conservative who staffed the company with like-minded individuals?

[maddogesq]

35. State of Ohio (paintiff) had an argument that was truly, truly lame.

From the SCOTUSBLOG piece:

"Ohio officials wanted to allow voting then only by members of the military and their families, on the theory that they might be called away suddenly on military duty."

Sheesh, even Fat Tony must realize that the argument his hypothetical.

[dorkzilla]

36. YAY!!!!!

Oh, what HAPPY news!!!!! This is turning out to be a WONDERFUL DAY -- I predict we'll all end the day with even a bigger smile on our collective DU faces!!!!!!


WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[former9thward]

37. Where are all of the SC bashers from yesterday?

They were all predicting the opposite outcome. The SC is not as predictable as some self appointed experts believe.

[SunSeeker]

38. FRICKIN AWESOME! I was fearing another Bush v. Gore.

Looks like the Supremes don't want to go there again.

[pinto]

39. Kick

[wordpix]

43. the Supremes did this under John Roberts????

WOOT! Will wonders never cease.

[juajen]

55. I believe he is trying to right the court; however, we will not win every time.

[Indpndnt]

44. Great news! I couldn't see how they could argue against the voters.

But, then, I never would have expected Ohio officials to be so blatant in trying to stop Ohio citizens from voting. It's criminal.

[Jose_Jalapeno]

45. Too late

It might be too late

[JimDandy]

50. Good grief there's still 21 days left.

Early voting hasn't even started in many other states yet!

[juajen]

58. Jose be a Dickey Drooper!

[chillfactor]

46. thank goodness the SC finally used some common sense ...

I thought they had completely lost it.....

I would have loved to have been in Husted's office when the decision came down....bet he wet his pants

[onenote]

47. A note of caution: the court denied the stay, but it hasn't acted on the state's request for cert

Ohio filed a petition asking for a stay of the lower court ruling or in the alternative, grant of its petition for certiorari and summary reversal. The court denied the stay request. I don't think its likely that they would turn around and issue a separate order granting the request for certiorari and summary reversal. But the door remains open for the state to seek certiorari and seek to get a ruling that would allow it, and other states, to set different voting times for different classes of voters on a going forward basis. It only takes four votes to get a grant of cert (and would have taken five to get the stay).

So I think (fingers crossed), we're in the clear for this election cycle, but the battle is not necessarily over. And keep in mind, it is in the State's interest to have the three days of pre-election day voting turn into a clusterf*ck so they can argue that they were right that there was a interest in limiting in person voting during that period.

[ejbr]

49. I just have one thing to say to Husted

[Coyotl]

54. Oh sooo D'oh! Equal rights, FCS!

and the wing-nuts tried to characterize this as Obama trying to stop military from voting

[Panasonic]

57. Now stop wasting the taxpayers' money, Husted and do your fucking job for once.

And for the people of Ohio, not for the national Republican Party.

I expect Husted to hand in his resignation to Kasich as early as today.

And Kasich hands his resignation as early as tomorrow.

[Zambero]

59. Score one for democracy!

The KKK (Karl-Koch-Koch) must be inconsolable at this very moment.

[Iliyah]

60. When Mitt loses OH he loses

the presidential race and that is why GOPpers are fighting hard to suppress the votes. Ain't no way Mitt wins six states out of 9, and they know it. Psychology if they can show their crazed base that OH is in their favor then they can easily steal it, but still, I don't put it pass them to try and steal it anyways. As to the polls I am convinced that most of them are bought and paid for by right winger corporations, i.e. gallup, ras and many many others.

Vote, Vote, Vote, and get your family and friends out to vote!

[lindysalsagal]

61. But it doesn't guarantee that there will be sufficient machines and workers in black neighborhoods.

They're not above doing anything to spoil the vote, and take the consequences later. It's not that easy to prove that poll workers deliberately limited access to working machines.

They can just rig the vote with the software that counts them.

Not celebrating yet.

[bamacrat]

62. You think Shitt will throw this in his face as an affront to the military?

I mean obviously O has the luxury of saying that he cares about everyone even the 47% and that's what they were fighting for.

[bucolic_frolic]

63. If we have another FL or OH

I think it will be in Virginia this time.

[SaveAmerica]

64. Saweet!! Republicans CAN'T hold the voters down!! yay!!

[marions ghost]

65. Good News BUT

WHY ARE WE FIGHTING THESE BATTLES OVER ACCESS TO VOTING???????????????????????????????????????

This is so backward. WHERE is reform going to come from? ______ ???? WHEN do we need it?!?--Yesterday.

The US voting "system" is an antiquated, easy to manipulate RIDICULOUS monstrosity, the most glaringly obvious indicator of what a sham democracy this is.

Sorry but you know this makes me so mad.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

68. Oh dang it

Romney just shit his magic underwear.

[mercymechap]

69. Typical Republicans

are still claiming that Obama was anti-military in trying to keep the military from voting these 3 days - talk about dumb.

[CultJamProductions]

70. Wait till Fox News spins it

They've been portraying the attempt to extend early voting to everyone (including veterans) as an ateempt to disenfranchise the troops: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/10/12/fox-lies-about-military-access-to-early-voting/190592

[calimary]

94. Welcome to DU, CultJamProductions!

Glad you're here! And you certainly are spot-on about how Pox Noise will spin a bunch of nonsense. We need you because this is NOT locked in yet!






Now get to work.

[CultJamProductions]

95. looks like I was right

http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2012/10/16/fox-botches-report-on-decision-to-uphold-early/190663

[hue]

71. Excellent!!!! K&R!!

[BainsBane]

72. The GOP might start to learn they can't strip away voting rights

and get away with it.

[Mojo2]

73. Fantastic

As a transplanted Ohio native, I find it almost shocking that Ohio would even consider backing a guy that said "let Detroit go bancrupt", as so many jobs in Ohio are tied to the auto industry. From what I have heard from relatives still in Ohio, the economy has been booming, so I find any poll showing Romney winning in Ohio to be strange. Now, if we can only do something about Florida, where I live, the GOP controls everything here, and they are the most crooked bunch that I have ever seen. I thought Bob Taft was a bad Gov. when I lived in Ohio, but Rick Scott makes him look like a genius. From the ground here, it looks like Florida may be slipping out of reach for Obama, but if he can keep Ohio then Romney has to draw an inside straight to win. We need Obama to show some of the Joe Biden street brawler tactics tonight and not let Romney run his hole tossing out his lies. I for one will not be watching the debate, it gets me too upset, but the news on Ohio made my day..Im sensing an uptick for Obame in the next few days!

[Maeve]

74. Four hours of voting each day, November 3, 4 and 5

8am-2pm Saturday and Monday, 1pm-5pm on Sunday

This is a win for the people of Ohio and another for Husted

[ailsagirl]

75. marvelous

[allan01]

77. re:Ohio early voting cleared by U.S. Supreme Court in Obama victory (via @BloombergNews)

great news. suppport the peoples right to vote

[leftyohiolib]

78. any minute now they will start screaming about activist judges

[Botany]

80. I think this was Kagan's doing .....

..... Ohio is in her area of over view and she might have said the court was not going
to hear the case.

although Sec. of State Jon "the douche bag" Husted still limited the hours for early voting
on the last 3 days ...
Sat. 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Mondays 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM


But still this is great news ..... Ohio might very well be out of reach for Romney by election day.

[onenote]

85. No. Kagan referred the stay request to the full court

It wasn't a one-Justice decision.

[Pab Sungenis]

91. She should have just denied it out of hand.

That they couldn't get three other Justices to agree with her on granting cert is further proof of how out of step she really is with reality.

[onenote]

93. Nope she shouldn't have.

First, had she denied the stay (which is all that was before her), Ohio could then have gone to any Justice of their choice and renewed their demand for a stay. That's how Supreme Court procedure on emergency stay requests works. So kicking the stay request to the full court (also pretty standard) was the smart move. It would take five (not four) Justices to grant the stay and the Justices generally don't like granting stays by a 5-4 margin.

Second, Ohio hasn't yet filed a formal cert petition. They did ask that the stay request, in the alternative, be treated as a cert petition and motion for summary reversal. There is no indication that the court either granted or denied that request, but the denial of the request for stay probably also constitutes a denial of the demand for alternative relief. While it only takes four votes to grant cert, it would still take 5 to reach the merits and grant summary reversal and its all but certain that there wouldn't be 5 votes for such a result.

So, its in the state's hands at this point -- they still have the opportunity to file for cert, even though a favorable ruling could only impact future elections, not this one. Whether they choose to do so and whether the court grants cert (possible, but probably unlikely in the absence of a split in the circuits) is yet to be seen.

[SoapBox]

81. Coolness!

[Cha]

83. Poor Husted.. what's a gopropaganda sos to do?

[tavalon]

84. Woot!

As they say in Chicago, vote early and often!!!!!! (no, I'm not advocating voter fraud, just avoiding election fraud by VOTING EARLY!!!!)

[Orrex]

87. Finally a voice of reason!

Welcome to DU!

[lonestarnot]

88. Woodamnhoooooo!

[sellitman]

96. I thought this Court was right leaning?

I'd like to know how each member voted. Who on the right hiccupt?

WTF?