Three courts issued separate rulings yesterday in disputes between Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Republicans about the rules for absentee voting starting today in Ohio, with both sides vowing to appeal.

The bottom line: At least for now, Ohioans who register to vote also will immediately be able to cast an absentee ballot, and observers will be allowed to watch. The rulings generally upheld Brunner's interpretation of state law.

The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama plans to have voters spend the night in front of Veterans Memorial to be the first in line when absentee voting in Franklin County starts at 8 a.m. today. Republican nominee John McCain's campaign also sees early voting as a chance to reach out to Democrats and independents as well as Republicans.

The dispute involves an overlap period between the start of absentee voting today and Monday's voter-registration deadline for the Nov. 4 election. Brunner had declared that new registrants during that period also should get a ballot.

Republicans objected, saying it was a recipe for fraud. They pointed to a section of state law that says people aren't qualified to vote until they have been registered for at least 30 days.

The Ohio Supreme Court sided with Brunner, ruling 4-3 that what matters is the date of the election, not when voters receive or cast absentee ballots. Those ballots are held and not counted until Election Day.

But the Ohio GOP also filed a lawsuit in federal court in Columbus to block Brunner's action. Although Judge George C. Smith abstained because the Ohio Supreme Court had ruled earlier in the day, the party plans to appeal, spokesman John McClelland said.

Smith's ruling came after another federal judge in Cleveland already had ruled on the same dispute in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of voting-rights groups to ensure that Brunner's interpretation is enforced.

Judge James S. Gwin ruled that Brunner was right, saying, "Candidly, the underlying merits of issues are not even close" and that Brunner "obviously determined the issue correctly."

Gwin, appointed by Democratic President Clinton, also indirectly scolded Smith, appointed by Republican President Reagan, after Smith refused to transfer his case to Gwin and moved up a scheduled hearing to try to get the first ruling.

Although Smith declined to rule on the question of "same-day" registration and voting, he did grant a temporary restraining order against Brunner's instruction that observers are not allowed for in-person absentee voting until the election.

Smith said there is no harm to voters in allowing observers, but keeping them out would create "tremendous risk of harm to the general public as voter fraud and intimidation are possible, leading to the undermining of voter confidence as a whole."

Brunner said she plans to appeal. Republicans filed paperwork yesterday to appoint 18 observers in Franklin County and perhaps other counties, and Brunner issued two pages of instructions last night to county elections boards.

The first-term Democrat said she thinks the start of absentee voting will go smoothly despite the legal wrangling, and that voters "are in a good position ... to vote with confidence."

Ohio Democratic Executive Director Doug Kelly also said the rulings should give voters confidence and that "Republicans' cynical eleventh-hour ploy to disenfranchise Ohio voters has been rightly rejected in both state and federal court."

Ohio Republican Chairman Robert T. Bennett called the rulings "a win for Jennifer Brunner's partisan efforts to aid the Democrat turnout strategy," adding that "fortunately, the federal court overturned her attempts to shut out observers and conduct the absentee voting process without public scrutiny."

mniquette@dispatch.com

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