MIAMI — Even before Tuesday’s stunning results from Michigan came rolling in, Sen. Bernie Sanders showed he had some fight left in him.
The Democratic White House hopeful announced he was filing a federal lawsuit in a bid to force Ohio to allow 17-year-olds to vote in next week’s presidential primary there if they will be 18 by the time of the general election.
The senator from Vermont argued that should be permitted under a plain reading of Ohio’s election law, and he is taking issue with an interpretation to the contrary by its Republican secretary of state, Jon Husted.
“This campaign is very proud of the fact that we are bringing many, many people into the political process,” Sanders told reporters as he prepared to board his charter jet in Detroit en route here. “We want to continue to see that. . . . Unfortunately, in the state of Ohio, there is an effort on the part of the secretary of state to do exactly the opposite.”
Sanders called Husted’s interpretation “an outrage.”
Husted said in a statement that he welcomes the lawsuit “because the law is crystal clear” and on his side.
Ohio is among the five states with Democratic primaries next Tuesday, and Sanders is hoping to replicate his success in neighboring Michigan, where he scored a narrow upset of Hillary Clinton. (Sanders also got crushed in Mississippi on Tuesday by Clinton.)
Young voters continued to be a bedrock of Sanders’ coalition in Michigan. He won those ages 18 to 29 by a margin of 81 percent to 18 percent on Tuesday, according to exit polls reported by CNN.
Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver insisted that Sanders would be pursuing the lawsuit in Ohio even if it weren’t in his political interests, saying he’s just as committed to protecting the voting rights of 95-year-olds as 17-year-olds.
Under guidance issued by Husted in December, 17-year-olds in Ohio with upcoming birthdays are allowed to vote in Tuesday’s primary — but they can’t weigh in on the presidential race in particular.
That’s because Ohio law allows them to vote on the nomination of candidates to the general election ballot but not help elect candidates, he said. Technically, what voters will be doing Tuesday is electing delegates to represent them at their Democratic and Republican national conventions, Husted said.
Weaver called that interpretation “narrow, formalistic and wrong.”
Husted said he’s simply following the same rules that have been in place previously.
“There is nothing new here,” he said. “If you are going to be 18 by the November election, you can vote, just not on every issue.”
Plaintiffs in Sanders’ lawsuit include several 17-year-olds who allege Husted is unfairly denying them the right to participate in next week’s election.
“Every political scientist understands that if we engage young people in the political process, if they vote when they are young, there is a strong likelihood that they will continue to vote,” Sanders said. “If they don’t vote when they are young, there is a less likelihood that they will participate in the political process.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท John Wagner
