When the big city newspaper calls you out, you know you’ve been caught for fair. Whether it does any good or not is another story.

Extended hours on nights and weekends that made it easier for nearly 9,000 voters to cast early ballots in the 2008 presidential race at the Hamilton County Board of Elections may not be repeated this year because of Republican opposition.

Across Ohio, that is part of a developing pattern in which extra pre-election voting hours may be denied to voters in large urban counties – most of which traditionally vote Democratic – even as extended hours will be available in some smaller counties with a strong Republican slant.

[snip]

If the debate plays out as it has in Ohio’s other major urban counties, it likely will result in a 2-2 tie vote by board members, with Democrats in favor of extending voting hours and Republicans opposed.

That would place the question before Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who over the past several weeks has consistently sided with GOP elections board members elsewhere in casting tie-breaking votes against extending voting hours during the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election.

Well, that’s not good. Here are some examples of how Husted’s done this:

Since mid-July, plans to broaden early voting have produced deadlocks in Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Franklin (Columbus) and Summit (Akron) counties.

In each case, Husted broke the tie by directing the respective boards not to add extra hours.

[snip]

In Southwest Ohio, elections boards in traditionally Republican Butler and Warren counties have approved special night and weekend voting hours from early October through Nov. 1.

Because Democrats did not oppose the idea, there were no tie votes to submit to Husted, leaving those early voting plans intact.

Husted spokesman Matt McClellan said the secretary of state will not intervene in those counties.

“Local boards of elections can set their own hours for early voting if they can agree on it,” McClellan said.

Only in cases where boards’ tie votes give him a decisive voice, McClellan added, will Husted move to block extra voting hours.

Look at that last sentence. “Only if I get a vote will I block extra voting hours.” No matter the merits of the argument for them, Husted won’t allow it.

People have died for the right to vote, but Republicans don’t honor that. They desperately want to keep Democratic constituencies away from the polls and they’ll try anything they can to succeed at it.

I hope there’s a lawsuit against this clown and these practices.