17-year-olds can vote, judge rules

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

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.