GARY, Ind. (AP) — Early voting centers in largely Democratic Gary, Hammond and East Chicago opened Tuesday amid a court fight, but how long they remained in operation rested in the hands of a Republican-appointed judge.

Lake Circuit Judge Lorenzo Arredondo sided with Democrats and two unions Tuesday morning in ordering the in-person absentee polling sites in the cities to supplement early voting already available in the Lake County seat of Crown Point, more than 10 miles away.

Shortly afterward, the satellite voting centers opened.

However, Lake Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins, appointed to the bench by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, was to convene a hearing later in the day to decide whether to extend his earlier temporary restraining order barring the centers from opening. Arrendondo's ruling trumped Hawkins' restraining order at least temporarily.

The presidential campaign of Democrat Barack Obama, who's from nearby Chicago, was jubilant at Arredondo's ruling.

"This is a victory for the voters and provides them the same access to the polls that voters have in other counties," said Jonathan Swain, Obama's Indiana campaign spokesman. "Early voting opportunities in these county offices in Hammond, East Chicago and Gary help ensure this election can be conducted with integrity."

Lake County vote-counting came under national scrutiny in May, when late returns delayed the results of Indiana's heated Democratic presidential primary between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who won by a narrow margin. A large winning margin for Obama in the state's second-most populous county is considered a key to his chances of winning Indiana's electoral votes over John McCain.

The two Republicans on the Lake County Election Board voted against the satellite sites last month on grounds that in-person absentee voting would make vote fraud easier. The board's three Democrats, however, decided they could institute the early voting centers without GOP support, triggering the legal battle.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, a Democrat, rejected claims that early voting would increase the possibility of vote fraud.

"In Gary, Indiana, never in the history of this town that I know of, at least in the past 40 years, no one has ever been indicted for vote fraud," Clay told WGN-TV. "It's not going to happen this time. They're trying to bamboozle the people by saying vote fraud."

Jim Wieser, an attorney for Democrats and the Steelworkers and Service Employees International unions, noted Arredondo consolidated the case in Hawkins' court with the one in his own.

"As far as we're concerned, it's over," Wieser said.

Depending on how Hawkins rules, the case could eventually wind up in the Indiana Supreme Court.

"We're just going to let the legal process work," state Republican Party spokesman Jay Kenworthy said.

Hawkins last week granted the restraining order at Republicans' request, but Arredondo ruled separately to open the centers. Democrats took the case to U.S. District Court, where Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen ruled Monday he did not have jurisdiction and sent the case back to the county courts.

Wieser said one of the plaintiffs he represented, Roxanna Lugo of Hammond, would be disenfranchised without the additional early voting centers because she works in Chicago, boarding a train every day at 6:15 a.m. and not returning home until 7:30 p.m. Polling places in Indiana are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Election Day.

"We think the ruling is absolutely correct under the law and in the spirit of free and open elections in the Indiana Constitution," Wieser said.

Thousands of voters already have cast ballots in person at the Lake County Government Complex in Crown Point. But Wieser said the additional early voting sites in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago might serve as many as 30,000 people.

State law requires each county to open at least one location for people to vote early in person between Oct. 6 and Nov. 3. The law permits more early voting locations if a county's bipartisan elections board unanimously approves them.

Indiana Democratic Chairman Dan Parker noted the same early voting cites were open during the May primary, when Indiana experienced a record voter turnout.

"Today's ruling is a victory of voters in the face of political game-playing and fear-mongering," Parker said. "In this landmark year, we should certainly not be reducing the amount of opportunities that people have to vote."