The Ohio Democratic Party has appealed to the US Supreme Court to toss out a 2014 state law and bring back the so-called “Golden Week”, when Ohioans can register and cast ballots at the same time. But an election law expert thinks the case doesn’t stand much of a chance.
Democrats appealed the decision of a three-judge panel that 29 days of early voting is – according to the majority opinion – quite generous. But Democrats want to go back to 35 days and restore the Golden Week, which they say it used heavily by minority voters. Ohio State election law professor Dan Tokaji said it would take five justices to reverse the lower court ruling, which he doubts would happen. “The more liberal justices on the court will know that as well as anyone, and so most likely, they’ll decide not to intervene in the case, and they may well do so without an opinion,” Tokaji said.
The court recently refused to reinstate a Republican backed North Carolina law that ended same-day voter registration and rolled back early voting further than the Ohio law did.
