FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Today, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier decision that Ohio voters will be able to cast in-person ballots during the final three days of early vote, including the Saturday and Sunday before Election Day. This is good news for the ColorOfChange community, which has advocated on behalf of the restoration of all weekend hours during Ohio’s early vote period.

More than 67,000 ColorOfChange members signed a petition demanding that Secretary of State Jon Husted restore weekend access to the polls. On September 12th, ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson delivered these petition signatures to Husted’s office along with signatures from members of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, MoveOn, and Ohioans using the Change.org platform. In addition, more than 700 ColorOfChange members have called Husted’s office and members of allied organizations have sent letters to the editor, all demanding an end to the Secretary of State’s efforts to restrict access to the polls in Ohio.

Statement from ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson:

“Today’s decision is in line with what members of the ColorOfChange community have long known: Black, low-income and elderly voters as well as students and other groups are more likely to vote if they have a broader range of opportunities to do so. Ohioans now need to demand that county boards of election open their doors those three days before Election Day so that everyone can take advantage of those weekend hours.”

“We cannot afford to have November 6th be a replay of the 2004 election debacle, in which many Ohioans waited upwards of 10 hours in line to vote. By calling for an end to weekend voting throughout the month of October, Secretary of State Husted has indicated that he wants a return to that kind of election, in which Black Ohioans and other groups that typically vote Democratic were disenfranchised. It’s a shame that Mr. Husted is playing partisan politics by putting barriers to the polls. Our community is still calling on him to open the polls all remaining weekends in October. Beyond that, it is our strong hope that Mr. Husted complies with today’s ruling and instructs the county boards of election to immediately make arrangements for voting for the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before Election Day.”

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With more than 800,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest Black online civil rights organization.