COLUMBUS ⎯⎯The Ohio Democratic Party released the following statement today from Chairman David Pepper in response to Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted filing a motion to stay last week’s ruling restoring “Golden Week.” Their argument in today’s filing was that the decision to restore “Golden Week” as it previously existed “risks harm” to Ohio voters and will breed “voter confusion.”

“It’s bad enough that Jon Husted and Mike DeWine are defending a change that a federal court has found to have a clear discriminatory impact against Ohio’s African-American voters,” said Pepper. “But even George Orwell would blush at the claim that voters will be ‘harmed’ and ‘confused’ by having an additional week of voting. If there is a risk of harm and confusion, it stems from the elimination of a week of voting that was widely understood and used over the past decade by so many Ohio voters.  Instead of insulting voters with their twisted arguments, Husted and DeWine should get to work implementing the order and ensuring Ohio has a discrimination-free election.”

The longer period of voting that included “Golden Week” was the law in Ohio in the 2008 and 2012 cycles when 60,000 and 80,000 Ohioans voted in that week, respectively before the legislature eliminated it in 2014.