Ohio Republican Wants To Cut Early Voting Time In Half

Today State Rep. John Becker from Ohio’s 65th House District sent out a letter requesting co-sponsors for a bill to reduce the number of days Ohioans are able to cast an early ballot.

State Representative John Becker in front of some trees

“The purpose of this legislation is to reduce the number of days for absent voting”, writes Becker. “I believe that allowing absentee voting for 35 days before Election Day also opens the chances for voter fraud.”

Becker goes on to tell potential  co-sponsors that his bill would “reduce the length of time for absent voting from 35 days before Election Day to 17 days” and would stop early voting the weekend and Monday before an election.

Becker’s bill, if passed, would be in direct conflict with the decision from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that forced Secretary of State John Husted to allow early voting on those same days during last year’s presidential election.

The 6th Circuit decision was previously appealed by Husted and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In other voter-suppression news, Husted was thwarted again today in his attempts to suppress votes made through provisional ballots.    U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley  an earlier ruling that local boards of election must count “votes cast provisionally when voters use the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.”