Voters who will turn 18 in time for the November general election can vote in Maryland s primary Tuesday, after the state?s highest court upheld a lower court?s ruling Friday.
Youth who turn 18 by Nov. 4 can register and vote in the primary, which includes nonpartisan elections for local school boards, according to the ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
Most people say, nonpartisan school board elections? Who cares? said Sarah Boltuck, a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda whose father filed the lawsuit against the state on her behalf.
But most 17-year-olds are high school seniors, and those elections directly affect them because they are still in school.
About 15,000 registered 17-year-olds will get to vote on provisional ballots, Boltuck said.
Ten counties are holding school board elections Tuesday, including Carroll and Howard counties.
They also will be eligible to vote in the congressional races for the 1st and 6th districts, which include portions of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll and Harford counties.
On Jan. 3, Attorney General Doug Gansler?s office advised that 17-year-olds could vote only in partisan primaries if they were registered with one of the two parties, and that ruling was overturned by Anne Arundel Circuit Court.
