On September 16, U.S. District Court Judge S. Arthur Spiegel, a Carter appointee, ruled that Ohio must let people who are in jail, but who haven’t been convicted of a crime because they are awaiting trial, vote absentee.
The state already generally lets such people vote absentee, but for those individuals who happen to be arrested after 6 p.m. on the Friday before election day, and who are still in jail on election day, voting is impossible. The order requires the state to send election officials to jails to make it possible for them to cast absentee ballots. Fair Elections Ohio v Husted, s.d., 1:12cv-797. One might think that the number of persons in jail who had been arrested after 3 p.m. on the Friday before election is a very small number of people. But the plaintiffs showed that there were 400 such individuals in Ohio in the 2012 election. The case had been pending since 2012.
Judge Spiegel is one of the nation’s oldest federal judges. He will be age 94 on October 24, 2014.
Sort of a “weird” ruling, but then again, we are INNOCENT until proven GUILTY!
While I think all judges – local, state, and federal – as I expressed in an earlier reply to another story, should be term-limited, one has to give this 94 year old judge credit for having some “smarts” at this age. Obviously good genes.
IF, live to be this old, I hope I still have my wits about me.
This particular group of disenfranchised individuals, nationally, most likely greatly outnumbers the total number of say, fraudulent voters.
In the incarceration capital of the world (US), this matters.
What a great story: Innocent person arrested, demands to vote just before election, and because of present circumstance changes their vote and contributes to a one vote margin victory.
How many weekend football game folks riot, kill, rape, etc. before, during and after such games ???
Another reason to have SPEEDY trials — esp. for riot folks ???
See the crime language in 14th Amdt, Sec. 2.