Originally Posted by blueash

In Ohio each county is now authorized to decide on the availability of extra evening and weekend early voting hours. These hours outside of the regular "business" hours allow early voting by people who work those regular hours. In previous elections when they were universally available a disproportionate percentage of Democratic voters utilized those extended hours to vote. This data is documented in a study from the University of Akron at
http://www.uakron.edu/bliss/research...ingReport1.pdf

"early voters expressed less confidence in the electoral process, reported less campaign contact, and were more likely to be strong Democrats than election-day voters."
The Republicans have now changed the rules for this election. Each county has 2 Dem and 2 Rep officials voting on whether to be open for extended hours. If it is a 2 to 2 tie, the Republican Sec of State breaks the tie for that county. For Cleveland and Columbus which had the highest percent of early voters in the state in 2010, the county vote was 2 Dems yes/2 GOP no and the Sec of State said no extended hours. In the conservative counties the Dem members of the Board of election voted in favor of extended hours as they had in blue counties but amazingly the GOP members in these red counties now voted yes for extended hours. So unless court challenges are successful the citizens of red counties will have much greater access to voting than citizens of blue counties. This is not fair and not accidental. The third large county, Cincinnati has its vote this week. Even the very conservative Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper recognizes what is happening. Voting time a partisan battle | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com