By Ann Sanner

COLUMBUS — Opponents of Ohio’s new elections law plan today to submit enough signatures to the state’s top election official to put the measure on temporary hold while they continue to try to get a repeal question on 2012 ballots.

Among other changes, the law shortens the pivotal presidential swing state’s early voting window and bans in-person voting on Sundays.

The state’s Democratic Party, President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and others have been circulating petitions and gathering signatures in their effort to block the law.

Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern told reporters earlier this week that the groups would hand in more than 300,000 signatures to Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who supports the elections overhaul. Elections officials would have to verify the names to make sure they meet state requirements.

Opponents need about 231,000 valid signatures to get a referendum on the law before voters next year. If they are successful, the law would be in limbo until after the presidential election. That’s the earliest chance for voters to decide whether the law should be tossed out.

The ballot repeal push does have consequences for the Nov. 8 election, when voters will decide whether to get rid of the state’s contentious new collective bargaining law.

The start date for early voting this fall has been left up in the air while the groups have been collecting signatures.

By submitting their petitions today, the opponents would halt the elections law from going into effect on Friday. That means local election officials would have to operate under the old law, with early voting starting on Tuesday.

The elections measure cleared the Republican-controlled state Legislature in late June with no Democratic support.

The law shortens the in-person early voting window from 35 days before Election Day to 17 days, and the period for absentee voting by mail from 35 days to 21. The cuts effectively eliminate a five-day period during which new voters could both register and cast a ballot on the same day.

The state’s new overhaul also bans local boards of elections from mailing unsolicited absentee ballot requests to voters, but Husted has agreed to send the requests to voters in all counties in 2012. Boards in Ohio’s larger, urban counties — those that tend to vote more Democratic — have typically made such solicitations

Husted has argued that each of the state’s 88 counties should have the same early voting hours and be open on the same days. He and his fellow Republicans contend it’s unfair that a voter in one county can cast an early ballot on a day when a voter in a neighboring county cannot.

Democrats contend the new law will lead to longer lines and make it difficult for working people to cast a ballot.

About 30 percent of the state’s total vote — or roughly 1.7 million ballots — came in ahead of Election Day in 2008.

Ohio is one of 32 states that allow voters to cast an early ballot by mail or in person without an excuse.

DETROIT — Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers are headed back to the same place they opened the season: Yankee Stadium.

Manager Manny Acta, right, argues with home plate umpire Dan Bellino after being ejected in the first inning yesterday. (AP photo.)

Miguel Cabrera singled and doubled, wrapping up the American League batting title in Detroit’s 5-4 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night. But that wasn’t enough to earn home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Less than an hour after the AL Central-champion Tigers won, they found out they would have to begin the postseason in New York on Friday night.

“It’s going to be fun,” catcher Alex Avila said. “I don’t think we really cared who we were playing. You know in the playoffs you’re going to play good teams.”

The Tigers could have hosted the wild card in the first round if AL West-champion Texas had lost to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday. The Rangers won 3-1.

So now Detroit — which finished the season on a 30-9 tear — will take on the Yankees, who posted the best record in the American League. The Tigers opened the year by losing two of three at New York. They took three of four from the Yankees at home in early May.

Detroit is going to the postseason for the first time since 2006, when the Tigers beat New York in the first round en route to the World Series.

“They’ve got good players — that’s the bottom line,” Detroit right-hander Rick Porcello said. “If you make it anything more than that, then you’re psyching yourself out. They’re just like us. We’re a good baseball team. They’re a good baseball team.”

Cabrera finished the season hitting .344, six points ahead of Michael Young of Texas and Adrian Gonzalez of Boston.

Jhonny Peralta hit his 21st homer of the season off Vinnie Pestano (1-2) in the eighth inning to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead after Ryan Perry (2-0) allowed Cleveland to tie it in the top of the eighth.

Jose Valverde pitched the ninth to finish the regular season with 49 saves in 49 chances.

Cleveland manager Manny Acta was ejected in the first inning, enabling bench coach Tim Tolman to be the acting manager in his final game before moving to an undetermined role elsewhere in the organization. Tolman said before the game he has Parkinson’s disease.

Acta said the ejection wasn’t an attempt to let Tolman manage his finale.

“I would never make a mockery of a baseball game like that,” Acta said. “If I had wanted Tim to manage, I wouldn’t have gotten thrown out. I would have handed him the lineup cards and told him to manage. He didn’t manage the game anyway — I managed it from the tunnel. It was just like being in the penalty box.”

The Indians led 3-0, and starter Zach McAllister went five innings without allowing an earned run, but the bullpen couldn’t hold on.

Detroit took a 4-3 lead in the seventh when Wilson Betemit tripled and pinch-runner Danny Worth scored on a wild pitch. Cleveland tied it in the eighth when Perry allowed a double to Travis Hafner, a pair of walks and then a sacrifice fly by Jack Hannahan.

Detroit manager Jim Leyland said he had a piece of paper with all sorts of batting average scenarios on it, hinting he might pull Cabrera if he thought it would help him win the batting title. But Detroit needed him in there to try to win the game, and Cabrera did his part.

It was an enjoyable ending to the regular season for Cabrera, who was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving early in spring training. He led the American League in home runs in 2008 and RBIs last year. According to STATS, LLC, he’s one of three active players with a “career triple crown” — along with Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez.

“That’s hard to do,” Cabrera said. “I just thank God for giving me the opportunity to go out there every day.”

Porcello allowed three runs and five hits in six-plus innings.

Notes

• Leyland didn’t provide an update on the playoff roster.
• Detroit finished 15 games ahead of Cleveland, which clinched sole possession of second place in the AL Central with Chicago’s loss earlier in the day. There was an impromptu celebration in the Indians’ clubhouse when the White Sox lost.
• Asdrubal Cabrera was in Cleveland’s lineup after Acta said the previous day he wasn’t planning to play him the rest of the season. “He came in and said he wanted to play,” Acta said. “He wants to get out there and play the last game of the season and set the example for his teammates.”

ELYRIA — Three teenage girls were sent to the Detention Home last night after they attacked an Elyria woman.

The girls, ages 15, 16 and 17, are charged with aggravated menacing, assault and violating a protection order.

According to a police report, the girls showed up at the woman’s Parmely Avenue home about 9 p.m. with another girl, who the woman knew only by her first name, and five males.

The teenagers, who were carrying a baseball bat, picked up the 37-year-old woman’s address sign and slammed it into the back window of her van and threw a brick at her neighbor’s house, the report said. Neither window was broken.

According to the report, the girls were believed to be looking for someone inside the woman’s home.

When the woman wouldn’t let them in the home, one of the girls punched her in the face, and she threw a punch back to defend herself, the report said.

The girls then took turns swinging the bat at the woman, but none of them were able to hit her, according to the report. After that, they all jumped on her, and she was knocked to the ground, the report said.

The woman told police the teens were upset due to a court case involving her niece.

The woman’s sister said that at least three of the four girls had shown up at her house earlier in the evening.

About 6:20 p.m., they went to her home, in the 800 block of West Avenue, and kicked her fence and threw rocks at her home when she would not allow her daughter to go out and fight them, according to a separate police report.