17-year-olds can vote in Ohio's presidential primary Tuesday

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Seventeen-year-olds who will turn 18 before the fall presidential election can vote in Ohio's presidential primary, a judge ruled Friday in a potential boost for Democrat Bernie Sanders as he fights to open elections across the country to the young people who are among his key supporters.
The judge's decision reversed instructions from the swing state's election chief just days before Tuesday's primary and amid early voting. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted initially vowed to appeal the ruling, then opted not to fight it after a state appeals court set a hearing for Monday.

Husted said the timing would give his office "no effective way to responsibly make the changes necessary to implement an orderly election." He directed the state's 88 county elections boards Friday night to comply with the order.

"This last minute legislating from the bench on election law has to stop," he said. Like other Ohioans, the 17-year-olds must already be registered to vote to cast a primary ballot. Nearly 7.6 million Ohioans are registered to vote, including more than 16,000 17-year-olds, according to Husted's office.
At least 20 other states allow 17-year-olds to vote in presidential primaries or caucuses, though rules sometimes vary based on political party, according to FairVote, an organization that tracks electoral issues.

Although the issue of whether the teens could vote in Ohio's presidential primary race had been under dispute in the perennial battleground, they were already allowed to decide on congressional, legislative and mayoral contenders.

Nine 17-year-old registered voters in central Ohio sued Husted in state court Tuesday over his interpretation of the policy for Ohio's youngest voters. Sanders' campaign had also filed a federal lawsuit over it.

The Vermont senator's campaign praised the ruling. "This is a huge victory for 17-year-olds across Ohio," said Brad Deutsch, an attorney for Sanders' campaign. "Their votes for presidential nominees will now count when they vote on either Tuesday or over the weekend in early voting."
A federal judge earlier Friday temporarily halted the lawsuit brought by Sanders' campaign and several teen voters, saying the court would abstain from a decision until the state court ruled on the similar lawsuit.

An issue in both lawsuits was a distinction between "elect" and "nominate." A manual for elections officials issued last year by Husted said 17-year-olds can vote "solely on the nomination of candidates" — and not in the presidential primary "because delegates are elected and not nominated."

More Insanity from the Bench!

I see that twenty other states already allow 17 year olds to vote in primaries.

Mostly I don't care, since I've never seen that voting age makes as much of a difference as the people who get worked up about it imagine it does. There just aren't THAT many 17 year old people who will go to the bother of voting, in any given area, as compared to the total number of voters of all ages in that same area.

I can see A sort of logic to it, thinking that if someone will be allowed to vote AFTER these folks are the official candidates, that they should be allowed to help decide if they WILL be the candidates. But then, you can follow that thinking a little further, and suggest that anyone who will turn 18 during the time the elected candidate will be in office, should also be allowed to vote. That would bring in nine year olds, voting in the primaries to decide who might end up President for the next eight years.

But seriously, how many seventeen year olds do you imagine there are?

I remember when I was just about to reach voting age. At that time, the news media made it appear that the left-wing liberation movements were 100% led by very young people, and that everyone under the age of twenty was on the same side. Someone even made a silly movie about what would surely happen if 18 year olds were allowed to vote (Wild In The Streets), in which they changed the Constitution and elected a 22 year old rock star.

In reality, there were far more right wing zealot seventeen year olds than hippies back then, and there is just as much difference between 17 year olds today. Besides, even if ALL the seventeen year olds in your area all voted for the same person, that would only move the total vote by a single percentage point.

So yeah, I think the decision is silly, but hardly worthy of a huge fuss.

17 years olds are more likely to be socialist / globalist & know nothing of world history or even the outside world.


This is a political strategy for votes.
Kind of like the USA letting Puerto Rico vote & hello Obama

Scotland or Ireland did the same thing (lower the voting age), when the powers that be wanted 'Gay marriage'

When Soctland wanted independence from England, they lowered the voting age, claiming 17 years old was old enough to vote for or against. And what happened?
They voted against... So the money & so free stuff kept rolling in. And England still had them by the b@lls.

Braveheart Freedom Speech (HD): http://youtu.be/lEOOZDbMrgE/

* Dramatic Agenda Music *

DUN-DUN-DUUUUN!!!
http://youtu.be/bW7Op86ox9g/

17 is way too young.