Opponent of Ohio’s new election law, which according to them, was designed to suppresses voter turn outs, have manage to get that law placed on temporary hold after they submitted more than 300,000 signatures in their effort to get a repeal the legislation on 2012 ballots.

By submitting their petitions Thursday, the opponents have halted the elections law from taking effect on today. That means local election officials must operate under the old law, and early voting in the state will start next Tuesday.

Ohio is one of 32 states that allow voters to cast an early ballot by mail or in person. The contested law, signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich in July, would have shortened by two weeks the early voting period by mail and in-person, eliminated early voting in the three days before the election, ceased automatic mailing of absentee ballots to all registered voters in the state’s largest counties,and allowed poll workers to refuse to give information to voters about where their polling station is.

Republicans have called the early voting process too long, too costly for budget-strapped counties and too prone to fraud and abuse.

However, Democrats and voter rights advocates  in Ohio say the law  is a transparent effort by Republicans to restrict voting among low-income and urban households who may not be able to get to the polls on election Tuesday.

Ohio elections officials must still verify that roughly 231,000 of the signatures are valid to get a referendum before voters next year.

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• Ohio Delivers Required Signatures to Block Voter Suppression Law, Force Referendum (news.firedoglake.com)
• Obama Supporters Score Early Victory in Ohio (abcnews.go.com)