WASHINGTON — (CNN) Bernie Sanders said Tuesday his campaign has filed suit against Ohio’s secretary of state, seeking to allow 17-year-olds to vote in the presidential primary there.
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver argued Tuesday that state law previously allowed 17-year-olds to vote in presidential primaries, accusing Jon Husted, a Republican, of trying to “disenfranchise” voters.
“The secretary of state has decided to disenfranchise people who are 17 but will be 18 by the day of the general election. Those people have been allowed to vote under the law of Ohio, but the secretary of state of the state of Ohio has decided to disenfranchise those people to forbid them from voting in the primary that is coming up on March 15,” Weaver told reporters in Detroit.
The Columbus Dispatch reported Saturday that a state Democratic lawmaker raised the issue last week, claiming that Husted changed the interpretation of the law.
But Husted said Tuesday that there has been no change — 17-year-olds who turn 18 by Election Day in November have always been allowed to vote in direct nominations (such as Ohio’s Senate primary) but barred from voting for delegates in the presidential primary.
“I welcome this lawsuit and I am very happy to be sued on this issue because the law is crystal clear,” Husted said in a statement. “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.”
“That means 17-year-olds can vote in the primary, but only on the nomination of candidates to the general election ballot,” Husted added. “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.”
Ohio’s primary next week is considered to be one of the most crucial contests for both the Democratic and Republican candidates. And young voters have been a critical voting bloc for Sanders throughout the Democratic contest. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday found Hillary Clinton besting Sanders among those aged 50 and older, 65% to 32%, while Sanders leads 60% to 38% among those younger than 50.
The Sanders campaign did not immediately provide a copy of the lawsuit Tuesday.
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