A lawsuit from a group of Ohio unions is trying to block the state from throwing out provisional ballots if the error was made by a poll worker.

Husted defended his decision Monday morning on MSNBC.

“All of the federal lawsuits have been settled over this, and at the 11th hour we’re discussing who fills out a form,” Husted said.

I really feel that voters will be benefited if they fill it out versus a poll worker, but ultimately as long as we get this issue settled, I’m really not partial to who does it.

Advocates are saying that the order by Husted late Friday wrongly puts the burden of recording the form of ID used on a provisional ballot on voters, not poll workers.

Attorneys representing a group of Ohio unions who previously sued over provisional ballots say Ohio law makes it clear that this responsibility rests with poll workers.

The attorneys argue that the order issued by Husted increases the chances of mistakes on ballots that will lead to them being thrown out.

A federal judge has given Husted a Tuesday deadline to file an official response to the lawsuit.

Click the play button for more details from Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles.

In the complaint filed Monday in Dayton federal court, Thomas Ritchie and Dennis Lieberman claim Jon Husted violated their constitutional rights by removing them from the elections board. It goes on to say “Husted fired us and then dared other election board members to try and stand up for the voters in their community.”

Ritchie and Lieberman were removed from their positions after violating a directive from Husted and voting to permit weekend early voting. Husted had ordered uniform early voting hours statewide that did NOT include any weekend voting. Those restrictions have since eased after a federal judge ordered Husted to allow early voting on the weekend before election.

The suit means Husted is now facing lawsuits or appeals on at least five different issues related to the fall election. His office did not respond to requests for comment.

Secretary of State spokesman Matt McClellan says their office is waiting the results of an appeal of the ruling that followed a lawsuit by President Obama’s Ohio re-election campaign.

Attorneys for the campaign urged the judge in court filings Wednesday to enforce his ruling that restores early voting for all voters during the three days before Election Day.

The hearing that Husted is required to personally attend is scheduled for September 13.

Click the play button above to hear why they’re so upset.

The Voters First coalition needed to submit roughly 385,000 valid signatures to make the ballot but fell short by more than 130,000 in its initial effort. It filed thousands of additional signatures last week.

Secretary of State Jon Husted said Monday that nearly 152,000 additional valid signatures were collected. That means a total of more than 406,000 valid signatures have been certified and met the necessary requirements.

The Voters First proposal aims to take away map-drawing powers from elected officials and put them in the hands of a 12-person citizen commission.

The Ohio Republican Party is fighting the measure. A party spokeswoman says given broad powers to unelected citizens amounts to taxation without representation.

Secretary of State Jon Husted had defended his decision to require county election boards to follow U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley’s decree instead of state law when counting the ballots.

At issue were requirements for providing identification when a voter has to cast a provisional ballot, typically a ballot cast in the wrong precinct.

Senate President Tom Niehaus and House Majority Leader Lou Blessing dropped the lawsuit Friday after Marbley ordered them to follow his ruling.

The GOP leaders had sued Husted, a fellow Republican, saying his action is unconstitutional because the elections board requirement violates the separation of powers doctrine.

But his toughest work may still lie ahead.

The Ohio Democratic Party’s organizational meeting stayed informal but relatively orderly, even during the biggest item on the agenda: the election of the chairman to a two-year term. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory stood up and introduced one of the two candidates – the current chair.

“I firmly believe that he is the right person to lead us to victory as we re-elect U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and President of the United States Barack Obama. Ladies and gentlemen, I place into nomination the name Christopher Redfern.”

Redfern’s supporters tried to drown out with thunderous applause the smattering of boos from the backers of the other candidate, Lorain County Democratic Party chair Anthony Giardini.

In nominating Giardini, Andrea Norris of Barberton shouted her main reason for backing him – her belief that he can bring together union members who are angry at Redfern.

“We can’t afford to have a leader that doesn’t have the support of the unions and voters that have so vocally spoke out against Mr. Redfern,” Norris said.

But if union members were angry, they didn’t show it in the vote. Redfern won re-election handily, 51-10. Giardini says he hopes his supporters can get behind Redfern – though he admits he still has concerns about the Redfern’s strategy.

“I like Chris personally, so I don’t – it’s not like I dislike him. I still disagree with the top-down approach, I still believe we need to build our party from the bottom up and that’s not going to change,” Giardini said.

Mike Kelly of Columbus is with the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, which backed Giardini. He says the results of the election in 2010 – which were disastrous for Democrats showed Redfern didn’t properly spend more than $1 million dollars his union gave that year.

“And his egotistic and really flamboyant attitude is something we don’t care for. He indifferent to labor.”

Redfern said after the vote that he’s not bothered by such opinions, and that he’s not going to apologize for being – using his word – brash.

“I’m at peace with who I am, I’m comfortable, as you’ve come to know, in my own skin. Kasler: And you think the party is too? Redfern: I think the party is the strongest in the country.”

Redfern shook off concerns about how he’ll handle serving as both the party chair and in his old Ohio House seat to which he’s likely to be elected this fall. And he says while he didn’t solicit anyone in elected office or in labor unions for support, his door is open.

“We’ll work hard to reach out to our friends in labor, whether they be affiliated in the private sector or those in the public sector.

“We’ll continue to push forward an agenda that reflects the membership and the membership’s wishes, and I’m confident that those who have a difference of opinion about the party or the party’s management will work together to elect and re-elect Democrats.”

Redfern also had harsh words for Republicans as they head into a meeting tomorrow, where Chairman Kevin DeWine says he will resign following the election of a new chairman, the result of a long struggle between DeWine with allies of Gov. John Kasich.

Making a reference to a comment Kasich made not long after his election as governor, Redfern said Kasich “drove the bus over DeWine” at the order of Columbus lobbyist Doug Preisse, the chair of the Franklin County Republican Party. And he claimed the battle within the GOP isn’t about strategy, as it was with his re-election bid – it’s about access to money.

Early voting starts in all 88 counties Tuesday and runs through March 2, says Secretary of State spokesman Matt McClellan.

“Voters have 35 days beginning today to vote. They can do it by mail, they can do it in person, or they can wait and they can go on election day.”

All four of the Republican candidates for president on the ballot in Florida will be on Ohio’s ballot – there’s also a 6 way contest for the GOP nomination for US Senate. On the Democratic side, there’s a primary for Ohio Supreme Court. And both parties have primary races in Congressional and Statehouse races throughout the state. There are 9 bond issues and 280 tax issues statewide – 85 of those are school levies. Would be voters have until February 6 to register.

But now, Ohio’s top elections official is suggesting lawmakers repeal that law so it doesn’t go before voters.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted says he wants legislators to repeal the law so the referendum won’t be needed.

But legislative leaders are not happy because they say Husted didn’t talk about that suggestion with them first.

“Do you sense a little frustration?” Senate President Tom Niehaus rhetorically asked reporters. “When you make an effort to reach out to a state office holder who has jurisdiction over this area and you are saying we have some ideas, we’d like your input on this. And they answer in the press. Yes, that bothers me. When people put a headline in front of good public policy? yes, that bothers me.”

Niehaus says lawmakers have been questioning their options on the election reform measure and wondering what, if anything, they can legally do to stop it now….before it goes to the ballot this fall. And he says those questions led him to seek advice from Secretary of State Husted in the first place.

“If you have rules in place for a primary, then could the rules be different in the general? I don’t know the answer to that question. That’s frankly why we went to the Secretary of State to ask….here’s what we are thinking about. What do you think we can do? And we weren’t getting anything back until I read the press release.”

But Husted says his comments about the need to repeal the elections reform measure came about as he was speaking to workers from local boards of elections, whom he says find the whole election reform matter confusing.

While the election reform plan has been put on hold until voters decide its fate, there have been questions by poll officials as to exactly what they should and should not be doing.

“Understand, I was specific not to wade in and tell them what to do,” Husted said. “I was specific to not advocate for any specific reform. All I was trying to do is to make the point that if it’s not going to become law before November and we were going to look at other ideas, wouldn’t it make sense for everybody to just repeal the bill so we didn’t have the controversy?”

Husted says he didn’t realize that his ideas were not expressed to Niehaus before Husted made them publicly.

“I know I talked with several senators about this. I know I talked with them in advance of the senate retreat and they were well aware of my desire to look at the issue of repealing the bill.”

If lawmakers do repeal the law, and it’s legal to do so, there wouldn’t be a ballot issue on it this fall. And it would render useless the efforts and expenditures of Democrats who fought to put this referendum on the ballot in the first place.

That’s a point Kevin DeWine, the head of the Ohio Republican Party, jokes about with reporters. He says repealing the law could get back at Ohio Democratic Party Chief Chris Redfern.

“If I can figure out a way to make a complete waste to make of the money Chris had to spend to get the signatures, I want to do that.”

Another question is what impact, if any, repealing the law would have on candidate elections in November. Election reform has been thought by political pundits as an issue that might help bring Democrats to the polls. And opponents of election reform who have been looking forward to voting on the issue could see repealing the law as a way of preventing their voice from being heard at the ballot box.