Group wants Ohio 17-year-olds to vote for president

March 9, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

COLUMBUS

Voter advocates filed a lawsuit to force Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted to allow soon-to-be 18-year-olds to participate in Ohio’s presidential primary.

The Fair Elections Legal Network and a Columbus attorney submitted the legal challenge Tuesday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on behalf of named voters in Columbus, Toledo and Kent.

The nine plaintiffs are 17 years old, with birthdays on or before the Nov. 8 general election. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to ensure eligible 17-year-olds are allowed to cast ballots for presidential candidates and that early ballots from such voters are counted.

“The General Assembly has explicitly guaranteed 17-year-olds the right to vote in primary elections, including the primary election for president, if they will be 18 by the time of the general election,” Rachel Bloomekatz, legal counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “These students are looking forward to voting in the presidential primary and to having their votes counted. They should be able to exercise this right. We seek to protect it.”

Jon Sherman, legal counsel for the Fair Elections Legal Network, added in the statement, “Secretary of State Husted seems to prefer a different rule for 17-year-old primary voters, but he is legally bound to follow the Election Code and the Supreme Court of Ohio’s decisions.”

Josh Eck, a Husted spokesman, said eligible 17-year-olds are allowed to participate in the primary election, but only in contests nominating candidates. The presidential race is different, he said, in that voters are electing delegates, not nominating candidates directly.

Husted said in a statement he welcomed the lawsuit, “because the law is crystal clear. We are following the same rules Ohio has operated under in past primaries, under both Democrat and Republican administrations. There is nothing new here. If you are going to be 18 by the November election, you can vote, just not on every issue.”

Voters who will be 18 on or before the November general election can vote in races for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Ohio Supreme Court and state legislative seats.

A total of 16,419 17-year-olds registered to vote in the primary, Eck said.