In a potential victory for Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, an OH judge has ruled that 17-year-old Ohioans can vote in the Buckeye State’s upcoming primary election. Sanders’ camp knows all too well that they got the edge among young voters over Hillary Clinton.
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A judge for Ohio’s Franklin County Court of Common Pleas [official website] on Friday granted an emergency order [text, PDF] allowing 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by the November election to vote in the OH primary next week.
OH isn’t the only state to allow 17-year-olds to vote in the primary.
Because the point of a presidential primary is to elect delegates to party conventions, teen voters were barred.
A manual for elections officials issued last year by Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted says 17-year-olds can vote “solely on the nomination of candidates” – and not in the presidential primary “because delegates are elected and not nominated”.
Husted, of course, is not happy.
“It is an outrage that the secretary of state in OH is going out of his way to keep young people – significantly African-American young people, Latino young people – from participating”, Sanders earlier said on Husted’s decision.
“Our system can not give one county court the power to change 30 years of election law for the entire state of OH, 23 days into early voting and only four days before an election”, he argued.
“We will appeal this decision because if there is a close election on Tuesday we need clarity from the Supreme Court to make sure that ineligible voters don’t determine the outcome of an election”, he added.
“If you engage young people in the political process, if they vote when they’re young, there is a strong likelihood they will continue to vote”, Sanders told the media during the announcement of the lawsuit.
“This is a huge victory for 17-year-olds across Ohio”.
Whether the teens could vote in the presidential primary race has been under dispute in the perennial battleground, though they were already allowed to decide on congressional, legislative and mayoral contenders.
Certain political parties also allow 17-year-olds to vote in a primary in an additional six states, according to FairVote, a left-leaning voting rights advocacy group based in Maryland. The state’s Republican elections chief, Secretary of State Jon Husted, had said Ohio’s rules and constitution didn’t permit it.
One of the plaintiffs in the case said he was “ecstatic” to be able to vote.
The new policy has been contested by some locals, as well as Sanders’ camp, which also filed a federal petition to challenge the Husted rule.
But the delegates aren’t assuming any office, said the teen’s attorney, Rachel Bloomekatz.
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A similar lawsuit filed in federal court by the campaign of Democrat presidential contender Bernie Sanders was halted on Friday when U.S. District Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers stayed the matter until the state court finding.
