INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has denied Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill's motion challenging a consent decree to add early voting sites in Marion County .

Judge Sarah Evans Barker ruled Thursday that the consent decree was entered into by all of the parties in a lawsuit that resulted in the agreement, including the Marion County Election Board. Hill argued in a motion filed Tuesday that decisions on early voting should be left not to the courts, but to election boards.

The election board reached the consent decree with plaintiffs Common Cause Indiana and the Indianapolis NAACP.

The attorney general's office says it plans to appeal Barker's ruling to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Indiana's top elections official, Secretary of State Connie Lawson, criticized Hill's motion as "reckless ."