Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has received a major boost in Ohio after a judge ruled that anybody who will be 18 by the time of the presidential elections is eligible to vote in the primaries.
The news will be particularly welcomed by Bernie Sanders and his team as his political message has been particularly well received by younger voters. Western journalism reports that it was Sanders election team that filed a lawsuit aimed at changing the existing rules, which deny anybody under the age of 18 the right to vote in elections in the state.
The ruling in the Ohio county court system was actually in regards to a separate case, but the news has been warmly welcomed by Bernie Sanders and his team in the state. It comes after the Sanders campaign has gained recent momentum after winning the primaries in Michigan and Maine over the past week.
Bernie Sanders lawyer, Brad Deutsch, said: “This is a huge victory for 17-year-olds across Ohio. Their votes for presidential nominees will now count when they vote on either Tuesday or over the weekend in early voting.”
Mr Deutsch continued by saying that the judge had “admonished the secretary of state for abusing his discretion by prohibiting 17-year-olds from voting for presidential candidates and not only directed the secretary to instruct poll worker to allow 17-year-olds to vote but also instructed them to make a reasonable effort to attempt to determine and record choices that have already been made by any 17-year-old who already voted in early voting.”
Even with just four days to go until the primary in Ohio is decided, the fact that Bernie Sanders has received a boost in Ohio will cause a small ripple of concern in the Clinton camp. However, her team will still be confident of securing victory at the polls when they vote next week. CNN reported on March 10, that Clinton holds a 30 point lead over Sanders in polls for the Ohio primaries. Sanders will be cautiously optimistic that he will be able to overturn the deficit after winning in Michigan where some votes had Clinton as much as 30 points in the lead.
Bernie Sanders should be wary of celebrating the victory too soon as the State of Ohio intend to appeal the ruling.
Joh Husted, Ohio Secretary of State, has led the criticisms of the rulings. “This last-minute legislating from the bench on election law has to stop,” Husted said. “Our system cannot give one county court the power to change 30 years of election law for the entire state of Ohio, 23 days into early voting and only four days before an election.”
Husted went on to confirm that the state is intending to appeal the decision saying: “We will appeal this decision because if there is a close election on Tuesday we need clarity from the Supreme Court to make sure that ineligible voters don’t determine the outcome of an election.” However, with just four days until the election an appeal seems likely to add to the confusion and increase the pressure on the electoral system in Ohio.
Sanders has received plenty of publicity while campaigning in Ohio. Sanders went viral when he offered words of support for breast feeding mother Margaret Ellen Bradford. Bradford was photographed by a reporter and shared the picture when it came to her attention. She also said that Sanders “thanked me for doing what mothers do and taking care of my daughter when she needed her mom, even if that meant nursing in public.”
As a result of this photo, the hashtag #BoobsForBernie began to trend on social media platforms such as Twitter.
#BoobsForBernie is actually trending right now. LOL. See why–> https://t.co/J1kzXEZP3h pic.twitter.com/FIpAHN5UgF
— 102.7 KIIS-FM (@1027KIISFM) March 4, 2016
Bernie Sanders may have received a major boost in Ohio, but even a narrow victory in Ohio may not be enough as he currently trails Hillary Clinton by 1223 delegates to 574. Sanders doesn’t just need to win, he needs to win big if he is to pip Clinton to the Democrat nomination.
[Photo by J.D.Pooley/Getty Images]