Meanwhile, the harm to Ohio, the Secretary, and the general public caused by issuance of this injunction easily outweighs any potential harm to the plaintiffs if their view of the law is eventually determined to be correct. The injunction, it should be noted,
both requires the expedited issuance of new instructions to poll workers less than two weeks before the election
and refuses enforcement of a presumptively constitutional policy regarding voter eligibility.
Blackwell, 467 F.3d at 1012 (“There is ... a strong public interest in permitting legitimate statutory processes to operate to preclude voting by those who are not entitled to vote.”). Moreover, the inevitable result of the injunction's dramatic changes to Ohio's precinct voting system will be interference with orderly election administration and greater confusion among poll workers and voters.
Id. Early voting is already underway in Ohio.
See “Voting Early in Person,” Ohio Sec'y of State, http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/elections/Voters/absentee/inperson.aspx. Changing election rules in this manner while voting is occurring disrupts the electoral process and threatens its fairness. These harms to the public and its elected government are significant ones. We therefore find that Ohio and the Secretary have demonstrated a high likelihood of success on their appeal of the October 27 preliminary injunction.