By Dan Horn
Enquirer staff writer

A federal appeals court today upheld a court order barring Ohio's Republican Party from challenging the validity of 23,000 new voter registrations.

The state GOP contends the registrations may be fraudulent because many of the new voters appear to have invalid addresses. Democrats say the pre-election challenges are unfair and are intended to discourage voters from going to the polls Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott blocked the challenges Wednesday, but the GOP appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit ruled this morning that Dlott's order should stand. She will hold more hearings on the issue today.

The judges said they appreciated the concern about potential voter fraud, but they believed there was not adequate time before the election to hold fair hearings to determine the validity of the registrations.

The 23,000 challenges are spread among 65 Ohio counties and would require hearings before boards of elections in each of those counties.

"This court is mindful of the practical difficulty of the County Boards of Elections arranging and conducting literally thousands of hearings for all challenged voters between today's date and November 2," the judges wrote in their decision.

Judge Dlott this morning extended the order forbidding challenges from six counties named in the lawsuit to all 88 counties in Ohio.

"If the law is good for six counties, it's the same for all 88 counties,'' she said. "We're going to have consistency. I intend to have uniformity in the state of Ohio.''

If Judge Dlott rules against the challenges, the GOP could again appeal to the 6th Circuit.

E-mail dhorn@enquirer.com