Republicans Block Young Voters From Participating In Ohio Primary

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Republicans Block Young Voters From Participating In Ohio Primary

March 7, 2016 11:50 am

In Ohio, the District of Columbia, and 21 other states this election year, 17-year-old citizens are allowed to vote in their state’s caucus or primary as long as they turn 18 by the time of the general election in November.

The rule allows thousands of 17-year-olds to participate in the Democratic process of voting for the very first time in their lives, but Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted reversed the rule, revoking the rights of the 17-year-olds from voting in the state’s primary on March 15th. It will be a key battleground state between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary, and among the Republican presidential candidates, as current Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich will try to make his mark on the primaries by winning his home state.


His argument was the primaries were electing delegates who will eventually elect a nominee for their party at a the party conventions later this year. Husted is distorting the language surrounding the rule which allowed 17-year-olds to vote early by alleging the 17-year-olds can nominate a candidate, but not elect one for office.

The Secretary of State before Jon Husted, Jennifer Brunner, allowed 17-year-olds to participate in the 2008 primary election.

” Ohio’s pro-voter practice that welcomes young adults into the process has been on the books since 1981,” said State Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent) in a statement on Husted’s recent change in the rules. “Secretary Husted’s latest underhanded, backroom attack on our most fundamental freedom should have us all concerned – about this and about his repeated claims he has made it easier to vote in Ohio – when in fact he continues to find ways to make it harder.”

This is not the first time Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has tried to restrict voter access in Ohio. He was sued last year by students for restricting voter rights, put restrictions on early voting in the state, and continues to impede on voters’ rights in the state of Ohio. The right to vote should be facilitated, not restricted, but leave it up to the Republicans to try to make distorted arguments and reasoning for making what should be a no brainer of opening up young people to the Democratic process and encouraging voting, an issue legislators have to waste time arguing over.

Source:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/03/07/republicans-block-young-voters-from-participating-in-ohio-primary/

Additional sources & information:

Ohio bars 17 y.o.’s who will be 18 in November from voting in next week’s primary

3/7/16 9:54am by Jon Green

Traditionally Ohio, in accordance with 21 other states, allows 17 year-olds who will be 18 at the time of the current year’s general election to vote in that year’s primaries.

This year, for the first time since 1981, this will not be the case.

Because Secretary of State John Husted said so...

Read more:
http://americablog.com/2016/03/ohio-bars-17-year-olds-will-18-november-voting-next-weeks-primary.html

Sanders lawsuit: Ohio official changed law to block 17-year-olds from voting

By Tom LoBianco and Elizabeth Landers, CNN - Updated 9:42 PM ET, Tue March 8, 2016

Washington (CNN)Bernie Sanders' campaign on Tuesday sued Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, accusing the Republican of quietly changing a law in an effort to block 17-year-olds from voting in the state's presidential primary next week.

Husted, however, insisted that there had been no change in the law.

"The secretary of state has decided to disenfranchise people who are 17 but will be 18 by the day of the general election," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told reporters in Detroit Tuesday afternoon. "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."...

Full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/08/politics/bernie-sanders-lawsuit-ohio-teenage-voters/index.html