The Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted is calling on fellow Republicans to repeal a controversial elections bill.
Last year, Ohio’s legislature passed House Bill 194, a voter suppression bill aimed at shortening Ohio’s early voting period, ban in-person early voting on Sundays and drop a requirement that poll workers tell voters when they are in the wrong voting location.
Last month, Fair Elections Ohio, a grassroots organization leading the push to repeal House Bill 194, submitted more than 300,000 certified signatures to place the referendum on the November 2012 ballot.
Although the referendum put the law on hold, Husted said repealing it now is the best course of action. “We don’t need the confusion that will come by debating a referendum at the same time we’re trying to inform people how to vote,” Husted said.
Husted also says the referendum will cost taxpayers $1 million just to put it on the ballot.
In a statement, Republican House Speaker William G. Batchelder said “while this matter has been widely discussed by people interested in election laws, at this time there does not appear to be a consensus moving forward.”
