U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott was sitting down for dinner Tuesday night when she got a call about stranded motorists who couldn’t get to the polls to vote.
She said several commuters were calling her clerk’s office to ask if there was anything the court could do to help.
Dlott decided there was.
So without a formal hearing, a written complaint or any evidence beyond the calls to the clerk, the judge ordered Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to keep polls open an extra hour in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties. Her one-paragraph order said the reason was a serious accident on I-275 that backed up traffic throughout the afternoon and into the early evening.
“People were using their cell phones from the highway. They wanted to vote,” Dlott said Wednesday. “I did what I thought I had to do under the law.”
Not everyone is convinced she made the right call. Husted’s spokesman, Josh Eck, said the secretary of state is considering appealing Dlott’s order, a move that could prevent counting of all ballots cast after polls closed at 7:30 p.m. He said Husted, a Republican, fears Dlott’s action could set a precedent for future, unnecessary court involvement.