Obama for America v. Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (Solomon Oliver, Jr., N.D. Ohio 1:08-cv-562)
On the evening of a presidential primary election, bad weather was interfering with both ballots and voters getting to the polls. One of the candidates filed a late motion to keep the polls open. Because of technical difficulties, the clerk’s office was unable to reach the assigned judge, so the day’s duty judge held a telephonic proceeding on the temporary-restraining-order motion. He decided not to provide relief with respect to polling places in the state’s other district, but he did order some polls in his district to remain open late. He ordered ballots cast by voters arriving after the regular closing time to be segregated. The news media reported that polls had already closed by the time they got the judge’s order and did not reopen.
Subject: Poll hours. Topics: Polling hours; case assignment; ballot segregation.

One of many Case Studies in Emergency Election Litigation.