If you want to vote early, you need to hurry: Early voting for Tuesday's election ends at 6 p.m. today. That's because the Ohio General Assembly unanimously approved a bill intended to make sure that votes of military personnel and other Americans living overseas are counted.

Confused? You're not alone. State Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D., Kent) calls it "a mess." That's an understatement.

The bill that passed last summer aims to help members of the military and other citizens vote by absentee ballot. It included a provision that changes wording in an earlier bill passed by the legislature. That wording allowed any eligible person to vote early up to the close of business on the day before the election. The amended wording states that early voting ends at 6 p.m. on the Friday before the election.

But the original early-voting law, which also overhauls other Ohio election procedures, has not taken effect. It is held up because of an effort to place those changes before voters next year.

The three days before Election Day traditionally have been the busiest days on the early-voting calendar. People most likely to be affected by the new restrictions tend to vote Democratic.

So Democrats want to keep early voting the way it is. They say it's irrational to enforce a change to a law when the law itself may never go into effect. Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, says he must enforce the more-recent law.

Yet the law that shuts down early voting today appears to allow members of the military to continue to vote early through Monday. Mr. Husted has not instructed county boards of election to provide or deny access for military voters this weekend or on Monday.

The Lucas County Board of Elections, says director Ben Roberts, will allow military personnel to vote Saturday morning and on Monday. But it won't allow nonmilitary early voters.

That policy potentially violates equal-protection guarantees, and could put Ohio on the wrong side of the 14th Amendment.

Almost any interpretation could result in election-related lawsuits. But the Ohio Supreme Court has consistently ruled that officials should always be liberal in their interpretation of election law.

There appears to be sufficient ambiguity to allow Mr. Husted to extend early voting by three days. But he must act immediately, to bolster his claim that he seeks to ensure uniformity in elections.

First Published November 4, 2011, 4:00 a.m.