Hillary Clinton's top campaign lawyer and others are challenging Ohio voting laws enacted by the Republican-dominated legislature and Gov. John Kasich, claiming in a lengthy federal lawsuit the measures were designed to suppress the votes of such traditional Democratic constituencies as blacks, Latinos and the young.
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative and three individuals asked for an injunction because otherwise they "and thousands of other residents of Ohio will have their right to vote and/or related rights, such as the right to participate in voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities, wrongfully burdened, abridged and/or denied."
Among the lawyers pressing the action is Marc Elias, the Clinton campaign's general counsel. He is a veteran campaign-finance lawyer from Washington D.C. who was the attorney for John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid.
The new action filed Friday comes on the heels of a lawsuit settled last month -- this one by Ohio groups protesting the state's voting arrangements -- against Secretary of State Jon Husted.
"But some politicians don't want peace, they just want to play politics, again. Ohioans don't want politically motivated, legal lap dogs messing around in our elections. This nonsense creates more confusion and discourages voting by undermining voter confidence," Husted said in a release.
"I suspect Mrs. Clinton's attorney may have filed his suit in the wrong state as Ohio has ample early voting hours. Perhaps he intended to sue Hillary's home state of New York where they have no early voting days or hours. ... Mrs. Clinton's political associates are simply intending to interject chaos into Ohio's nationally recognized voting system."
Elias said the action came on behalf of those listed on the lawsuit, not the campaign of Clinton, the former Democratic secretary of state who so far is beating all comers in polls of prospective 2016 presidential matchups.
"My firm and I have brought a number of lawsuits throughout the country to vindicate the right to vote," Elias told The Dispatch. "Our lawsuit is on behalf of the plaintiffs listed in the complaint. It is unfortunate that Secretary Husted chose to respond with a political attack rather than working to remedy the problems identified in our suit."
Elias also represents Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Senate campaign of former Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democratic National Committee and the national campaign committees promoting Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate and House. Another attorney on the lawsuit is Don McTigue, who represents many Democrats in Ohio.
The new action against Husted and Attorney General Mike DeWine says GOP officials' actions were designed "to bolster artificially the likelihood of success of Republican candidates in Ohio elections," which "threatens the very bedrock of our democracy."
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative, formed in 2007, seeks "to build a transformative base of power to bring about racial, social and economic equality in Ohio." The group says it registered 40,000 Ohio voters in 2012.
The plaintiffs include Ohio State University student Jordan Isern from California, who voted early in Ohio in 2012 and helped sign up other voters; Carol Biehle of Loveland near Cincinnati, a poll worker; and the Rev. Bruce Butcher of Akron, who has helped organize Souls to the Polls and other efforts to mobilize voters.
(c)2015 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)
