Ohio ruled 17-year-olds can vote if they will be of age at the time of the Presidential election

From Ballot Access News article titled, “Ohio State Court Rules 17-Year-Olds Who Will be 18 by November 8, 2016, May vote in Presidential Primaries” by expert Richard Winger:

On March 11, an Ohio state trial court ruled that 17-year-olds can vote for president in the March 15 Ohio presidential primaries, if they will be 18 by November 8, 2016. State ex rel Schwerdtfeger v Husted, 16cv-2346, Franklin County. Here is the 13-page opinion.

Ohio law says such voters can vote in primaries. But Secretary of State Jon Husted said that a presidential primary is not really a “primary” because it is an election for Delegates to a party’s national convention. But the decision says the presidential primary is not an election of delegates. The presidential primary only determines how many delegates each presidential candidate may send to the national convention. The actual choice of which delegates go to the national convention is made later at a party caucus.

The decision also relies on legislative intent. It says when the legislature in 1981 permitted 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they would be age 18 by the general election, they wanted people of that age to get interested in participation. The decision says it would be odd if the most interesting part of the primary ballot (the presidential part) is off-limits. Finally, the decision relies on the fact that the primary ballot includes all office, not just president, and it doesn’t make sense that some voters would be given just “part” of a ballot, or told that they can vote on parts of it but not other parts.

The decision is a good precedent that just because the voting process has started, that is not reason by itself to limit voting rights. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

More information was offered by an article in Law Street Media:

The ruling, which came down in favor of nine 17-year-olds in Ohio, was praised by theBernie Sanders campaign, the ACLU of Ohio, the League of Women Voters in Ohio, and the Fair Elections Network, all of which either sent letters or filed lawsuits against the secretary of state’s interpretation. According to FairVote, a non-partisan voting reform advocacy group, Ohio is now one of 23 states in which 17-year-olds who will be 18 before the general election can participate in at least one party’s primary.

According to Ohio law, any eligible voter who will be 18 on or before the date of the general election may vote in their party’s primary election, even if they are not 18 at that point. Here’s the official text of the law:

At a primary election every qualified elector who is or will be on the day of the next general election eighteen or more years of age, and who is a member of or is affiliated with the political party whose primary election ballot he desires to vote, shall be entitled to vote such ballot at the primary election.