COLUMBUS – A national voting rights organization — along with nine 17-year-old plaintiffs — is suing Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted for his refusal to allow 17-year-olds to vote in next week’s presidential primary.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The Fair Elections Legal Network filed a 16-page complaint against Husted on Tuesday in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, claiming that the most recent version of the Ohio Election Manual violates the state’s Election Code by barring 17-year-olds from voting in the presidential primary.
Husted said he was “very happy to be sued” on the issue because “the law is crystal clear.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democratic candidate for president, announced Tuesday that he will file a separate suit against Husted, according to the Washington Post. Sanders has strong support among younger voters.
Rachel Bloomekatz, the attorney working on the case for the Fair Elections Legal Network, said the Ohio Revised Code specifically allows 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections, including presidential primaries, if they will be 18 by the time of the general election.
True, says Husted, but not on every issue.
“That means 17-year-olds can vote in the primary, but only on the nomination of candidates to the General Election ballot. They are not permitted to elect candidates, which is what voters are doing in a primary when they elect delegates to represent them at their political party’s national convention, or vote on issues like school, police and fire levies,” he said in a statement issued by his office Tuesday.