title:  Sanders Campaign Fights Back After Ohio Bans Youth From Primaries
text:  Twenty-two states, including the District of Columbia, allow 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections as long as they turn 18 by the time the general election is held in November. The rule allows many youth to begin participating in the democratic process of voting for the very first time, but Ohio s Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted reversed the rule in Ohio, revoking the rights for 17-year-olds to vote in Ohio s primaries on March 15th. For both Republicans and Democrats, Ohio will be a key state and every vote will matter. For the Bernie Sanders campaign, the reversal is a blow, as the campaign s strongest demographic is young voters, where they have received over 80 percent support in many states from voters ages 18-29. It is an outrage that the secretary of state in Ohio is going out of his way to keep young people   significantly African-American young people, Latino young people   from participating,  said Senator Sanders in a released on March 8th. Sanders  campaign cited US Census data which shows 17-year-old voters are more likely to be African-Americans and Latinos.Ohio s Secretary of State, Jon Husted, argued over the language of Ohio s rule in December, claiming 17-year-olds can still vote, just not to elect a candidate. This isn t the first time Ohio Republicans have tried to deter voter turnout. In 2015, Republican Ohio State Representatives sponsored a bill to demand a poll tax in order to vote, despite poll taxes being unconstitutional. The tax was tucked into a Voter ID bill, which was pushed for under the false assumption Voter ID laws prevent fraud, although voter fraud is virtually non-existent in Ohio. If a voter does not have a photo ID, they will have to pay $8.50 for a voter ID card.  In 2015, Hillary Clinton s campaign sued Ohio to repeal several Republican voter suppression tactics which helped George W. Bush win Ohio in 2004.Featured image via Addicting Info