With one lawsuit pending in the Ohio Supreme Court regarding the first week of absentee voting, several voting-rights groups have filed a separate lawsuit in federal court over the same dispute.

It involves the overlap between the start of absentee voting Tuesday and the Oct. 6 voter-registration deadline. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has directed that citizens can register and immediately cast an absentee ballot during that time.

Republicans cried foul, saying that amounts to illegal "same-day" registration and voting, and that Ohio law requires citizens to be registered for at least 30 days before they are eligible to vote. That's the basis of the Ohio Supreme Court lawsuit.

But the federal lawsuit, filed late Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH), 1Matters, Project Vote and two individual voters, argues that federal law says an "election" occurs when votes are tabulated, not when they are cast.

Absentee ballots by law are held and not counted until Election Day.

The federal lawsuit, which seeks a temporary restraining order against the Madison County Board of Elections and any other board that seeks to ignore Brunner's directive, also argues that imposing a "30-day waiting period" between registration and voting is unconstitutional.

Other groups, including the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, are filing "friend of the court" briefs in the Supreme Court case on grounds the GOP interpretation of the law would disenfranchise veterans overseas and other voters.

mniquette@dispatch.com