On March 11, an Ohio state trial court ruled that 17-year-olds can vote for president in the March 15 Ohio presidential primaries, if they will be 18 by November 8, 2016. State ex rel Schwerdtfeger v Husted, 16cv-2346, Franklin County. Here is the 13-page opinion.

Ohio law says such voters can vote in primaries. But Secretary of State Jon Husted said that a presidential primary is not really a “primary” because it is an election for Delegates to a party’s national convention. But the decision says the presidential primary is not an election of delegates. The presidential primary only determines how many delegates each presidential candidate may send to the national convention. The actual choice of which delegates go to the national convention is made later at a party caucus.

The decision also relies on legislative intent. It says when the legislature in 1981 permitted 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they would be age 18 by the general election, they wanted people of that age to get interested in participation. The decision says it would be odd if the most interesting part of the primary ballot (the presidential part) is off-limits. Finally, the decision relies on the fact that the primary ballot includes all office, not just president, and it doesn’t make sense that some voters would be given just “part” of a ballot, or told that they can vote on parts of it but not other parts.

The decision is a good precedent that just because the voting process has started, that is not reason by itself to limit voting rights. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.