By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog Email:editor@clevelandurbannews.com, Tel: (216) 659-0473). Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Warrensville Heights Democrat and one of two Blacks in Congress from Ohio along with Columbus Democrat Joyce Beatty, said yesterday that she is disappointed with the decision issued Monday by the U.S. Supreme to delay the start of early voting in Ohio, which was to begin yesterday.
Per a split 5-4 decision the conservative majority of the high court temporarily blocked lower court rulings won by voter rights advocates who say that early voting, or golden week, is utilized by the states' most vulnerable voters, including minorities, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor.
"By ordering a last minute halt to the start of voting in Ohio, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken away an important opportunity many Ohioans count on to cast a ballot," said Fudge, who also chairs the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks In Congress.
"This decision," said Fudge, "injects unnecessary confusion into the electoral process."
The divisive ruling, which was opposed by the court's four liberal justices, has implications for other states, including North Carolina, Texas and Arkansas where Black elected officials, Black leaders, and Civil Rights groups have been up in arms over efforts by state legislatures to adopt laws to limit early voting. Civil Rights organizations, including the Cleveland NAACP, Black leaders and elected officials in Ohio have been just as upset with the Republican dominated Ohio State Legislature on the issue.
Yesterday's decision, applauded by Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who faces Democratic candidate state Sen Nina Turner in November, blocks the state from reducing early voting from 35 to 28 days and eliminates some evening and Sunday voting.
"Limiting access to the ballot box in a manner that disproportionately discourages senior, minority, and disabled citizens, among others, from participating in the electoral process diminishes our democracy," said Fudge. "As Dr. Martin Luther King said more than 50 years ago, 'justice delayed is justice denied."
Last year the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County vs. Holder. That decision invalidated the portion of the Voting Rights Act enacted with other provisions in the 1960s that required that 15 states subject to discriminatory practices historically get federal approval to change state voting laws. Ohio is is not among those states
North Carolina and Texas are among the states directly affected by the Shelby County decision and were previously barred from acting on key voting matters without federal court approval.
The decision yesterday to slice early voting in Ohio sets the stage for the high court to test the early voting issue on states directly impacted by last year's Shelby County ruling.
The Ohio case that prompted yesterday's decision was the first to reach U.S. Supreme Court on the controversial early voting issue.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
