CINCINNATI, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court has quashed a bid by Ohio Republicans to challenge 23,000 new voter registrations before Tuesday's election.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled Friday it would be difficult or impossible for county boards of elections to conduct thousands of hearings on the challenges during the few days remaining before next week's presidential election, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Saturday.
Hours after the appeals court ruling, a lower court cancelled all such hearings across the state.
"We're going to have consistency," said U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott said. "I intend to have uniformity in the state of Ohio."
Ohio Republican leaders, however, say they still want to send challengers to some Ohio polling places. The Buckeye state permits challengers at polling sites as a way to check voter registration. Republicans say the challengers are needed to guard against voter fraud in hundreds of precincts.
But civil-rights activists in Cincinnati have asked Dlott to bar the challengers, arguing the GOP is trying to intimidate voters in black precincts who intend to cast ballots for Democrats.
