Court nixes Ohio voter reg rules

Judge throws out Ohio voter registration rules

M. R. Kropko, Associated Press:

CLEVELAND - A federal judge threw out new state rules governing voter registration drives on Friday, saying they appear to violate the First Amendment and hurt efforts to sign up new voters.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley issued an order from the bench immediately halting the enforcement of the registration rules. She said she planned to issue a detailed written order sometime next week.

A coalition of voter advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers sued the state, asking O'Malley to throw out the regulations, which they claimed were intimidating and impaired their registration drives, particularly in low-income and minority areas, because the rules carry potential criminal penalties.

They state said the rules were needed to guard against voter fraud.

O'Malley said she would have liked to have months to study the case but felt she had to make a ruling Friday ahead of the Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally a heavy voter registration drive time.

The judge said that, in light of her ruling, voters should ignore the references to the criminal penalties on forms used to sign up new voters. She gave the secretary of state's office five days to remove references to the rules and penalties on its Web site.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the Republican candidate for governor, plans to comply with the order and not challenge it, said Larry James, an attorney for Blackwell's office who was in court Friday.