Supreme Court blocks early voting in Ohio

As of yesterday's post, Ohio's early voting, scheduled to begin today, was awaiting decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. Late Monday evening, the high court granted a stay to state officials in a 5-4 decision split along party lines, with the Republican majority casting the deciding votes. This effectively abolishes Ohio's Golden Week, wherein voters could both register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time for one week at the beginning of the early voting period, and pushes the start of voting to October 7.

Whether or not the other extended hours that the district court had approved will take place remains unresolved at this point. According to SCOTUS Blog, the next steps in the case would be for state officials to file a petition with the Supreme Court to review the case and the Court to rule on it. If both actions do not take place with adequate time before Election Day on November 4, then the additional early voting hours ordered by the district court will not take place in this election cycle. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has issued this directive with respect to the early voting schedule for the coming weeks.