INDIANAPOLIS | The Lake County Republican Party is back before the Indiana Supreme Court in its fight to close early voting centers in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.

Tim Sendak, one of the party's attorneys, said Republicans filed the appeal late Thursday morning in Lake County and in Indianapolis, with a plea for an emergency hearing on a motion to close in-person voting in the county clerk's branch offices in the county's three Democratic strongholds.

He said no hearing date had been set as of 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

The GOP asked the Indiana Supreme Court last week to close the satellites, but the high court instead ordered the case to be heard by Lake County Superior Court Judge Diane Kavadias-Schneider, who Wednesday granted a petition by Democrats and the United Steelworkers union to keep the sites open.

She ruled it is in the public interest to have the centers provide better access to early voting in minority communities.

Republicans contend state law only allows one early voting center unless both parties agree to satellite locations. Republicans contend multiple early voting centers increase the likelihood of vote fraud.