UPDATE
From the Associated Press:
A Lake County, Ind., judge has ordered election officials to immediately open satellite early voting centers in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.
Lake Circuit Judge Lorenzo Arredondo today sided with Democrats and two unions in ordering the in-person absentee voting sites in the three urban centers near Chicago.
Republican members of Lake County's election board had opposed the satellite centers, saying they would increase the chance of vote fraud in the Nov. 4 election.
It's unclear whether a separate court hearing that was scheduled for this afternoon will go forward. Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins had scheduled a hearing on a temporary restraining order barring the centers from opening, but Arredondo consolidated the case in Hawkins court with the one in his own.
Two voting machines arrived at the Gary courthouse around noon, Progress Illinois' Josh Kalven reports:
Just before 1 p.m., State Sen. Earline Rogers (right) cast the first vote. The line of 20 to 30 waiting outside the clerk's office burst into applause when she emerged.
At the time Rogers turned in her ballot, election officials were reportedly setting up machines in Hammond and East Chicago as well.
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It's back to the state courts for the increasingly Byzantine legal fight over early voting sites in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.
U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen decided Monday he has no jurisdiction to settle the partisan bickering about whether to allow satellite vote centers in the three cities.
Van Bokkelen remanded the case to Lake Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins, who ruled Oct. 3 on behalf of Republicans by temporarily stopping early voting in the Democratic strongholds.
But before the parties appear in front of Hawkins at 1 p.m. today, another group of plaintiffs will take their case in favor of opening the satellites to Lake County Circuit Judge Lorenzo Arredondo.
Watch interviews with Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, the Lake County Democratic Party Chairman, and Lake County Republican Party Chairman John Curley: