COLUMBUS — A federal judge today sided with President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and ordered Ohio to allow early voting on the three days prior to the Nov. 6 election to all voters. 
 
 But hours after the decision, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced he will appeal the ruling. That appeal will be made to the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. 
 
 U.S. District Court Senior Judge Peter C. Economus ordered Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted not to enforce a state law passed last year that closed that window to in-person early voting to anyone but members of the military and their families. 
 
 “This Court notes that restoring in-person early voting to all Ohio voters through the Monday before Election Day does not deprive (military) voters from early voting,’’ wrote Judge Economus, a Clinton appointee. “Instead, and more importantly, it places all Ohio voters on equal standing. 
 
 “The only hindrance to (military) early voting is the Secretary of State’s failure to set uniform hours at elections boards during the last three days before Election Day,’’ he wrote. “On balance, the right of Ohio voters to vote in person during the last three days prior to Election Day—a right previously conferred to all voters by the State—outweighs the State’s interest in setting the 6 p.m. Friday deadline.’’ 
 
 The lawsuit is one of just a number of battles being waged in the swing state of Ohio over early voting. 
 
 Under Ohio law, voters may begin to cast absentee ballots by mail or in person beginning on Oct. 2, 35 days before the election. The judge’s ruling lifts the ban that existed on in-person early voting by non-military voters that began at 6 p.m. on the Friday before the election. 
 
 “This Court anticipates that Defendant Secretary of State will direct all Ohio elections boards to maintain a specific, consistent schedule on those three days, in keeping with his earlier directive that only by doing so can he ensure that Ohio’s election process is ‘uniform, accessible for all, fair, and secure’,’’ Judge Economus wrote. ||||| A federal judge in Ohio on Friday granted a request from President Barack Obama's campaign to give all voters in the swing state the option of casting their ballot in person during the three days before Election Day. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Peter Economus in Columbus issued a preliminary injunction in a case involving a state law that cuts off early voting for most residents on the Friday evening before a Tuesday election. 
 
 The judge's ruling said that he expects Ohio's elections chief to direct all county elections boards to maintain a specific, consistent schedule on those three days "in keeping with his earlier directive that only by doing so can he ensure that Ohio's election process is `uniform, accessible for all, fair, and secure.'" 
 
 Obama's campaign and Democrats sued the state's elections chief and attorney general over the legality of the law. They argued that everyone should have the chance to vote on those three days. The law makes an exception for military personnel and Ohio voters living overseas. 
 
 Attorneys for the state have said many laws already grant military personnel special voting accommodations, such as requirements for states to send absentee ballots to them 45 days before the election. And they contend local boards need those three days to prepare for the election. 
 
 Ohio is among 32 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow voters to cast an early ballot by mail or in person without having to give a reason. 
 
 The Obama campaign and Democrats said a series of legislative changes by state lawmakers arbitrarily eliminated the opportunity for most Ohioans to vote in person on those three days, while giving military or overseas voters the chance to do so. 
 
 Economus had pointed out to them during an early hearing that Ohioans can cast ballots by other methods _ in person on Election Day or by mail beginning 35 days before the election. Lawyers for the state also noted the multiple ways voters can cast a ballot this fall, including casting an early ballot in person on other days. 
 
 Before the law, local boards of elections previously set early voting hours on those three final days. And weekday hours and weekend voting varied among the state's 88 counties. 
 
 Democrats estimated in their lawsuit that 93,000 people voted during the final three-day window before the 2008 election.
– A federal judge today struck down a new Ohio law that forbids early voting in the three days before Election Day for non-military voters, the Toledo Blade reports. Ohio has long allowed voters to cast absentee ballots by mail or in person starting 35 days before the election, but the law, passed last year, would set a deadline of 6pm on Friday to do so, for everyone except military members. The Obama administration challenged the law, saying it arbitrarily gave the military special treatment, and the judge agreed. "Restoring in-person early voting to all Ohio voters through the Monday before Election Day does not deprive (military) voters," he wrote in his decision. "Instead, and more importantly, it places all Ohio voters on equal standing." Ohio's lawyers had argued that many laws already grant military voters special privileges, and that local boards needed the three-day respite to prepare for the election, the AP reports.