Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) complained last night on MSNBC that “in no time really in our lifetimes have we seen us go backwards on access to the ballot.”
“This is just morally reprehensible to allow more and more big money on one end and shut people down on the other end that would like to vote early,” Brown said of Ohio’s secretary of state vowing to make early voting uniform across the state in time for Election Day.
Jon Husted, a Republican who promised the remedy the complaint of longer hours in some districts, ordered all 88 boards of election to be closed on weekends to be closed on weekends for early voting. The Obama campaign took to court this week the policy of leaving the three days before the election open to only military early voters.
“He acts like that’s a nod to good government by taking away the advantages that overwhelmingly white suburban upper, more higher income Republican counties have,” Brown said. “…They’re tightening up voter rules to the point of keeping people away from the polls.”
The senator is being challenged for his seat this cycle by state Treasurer Josh Mandel. The latest Real Clear Politics polling average has Brown 8.7 points up on the Republican, though the Nation Republican Senatorial Committee yesterday was touting the results of a Rasmussen poll that showed the two tied.
Brown said he believes the voting tussle stems from the right feeling “so threatened by Barack Obama.”
“We have such momentum last year from Issue 2, the collective bargaining legislative — collective bargaining bill, first time in American history when collective bargaining rights were put on a statewide ballot,” Brown said. “We won with 61 percent of the vote, beating back the efforts to take away collective bargaining rights. We have momentum that way. I think that will continue, but it`s all about organizing.”
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