Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday that 17-year-olds may vote in nonpartisan primary elections.
The Court of Appeals ruling cements a Feb. 1 order in Anne Arundel Circuit Court that allows 17-year-olds who will turn 18 before the general election in November and who registered to vote by last month's deadline to cast ballots Tuesday in nonpartisan primary elections, such as those for county school boards and district judges.
The Court of Appeals ruled that voter eligibility provisions of the Maryland Constitution "are not in conflict" with the state's election law, which says that 17-year-olds who will be 18 before the general election may vote in the primary.
The court added that those 17-year-old voters may not vote in any "special or municipal" election, which in this election cycle would affect Washington County voters, whose ballots will contain a referendum question on the county's home-rule charter.
Yesterday's ruling, which remands the case to Circuit Court for a declaratory judgment, stems from a lawsuit filed in September by the parents of two 17-year- olds, one in Montgomery County and one in Frederick County. The families said their children were being disenfranchised because they were unable to vote in nonpartisan elections.
Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for the office of Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, which challenged the suit, said the state was looking for clarification on the issue of nonpartisan elections for early voters and was "very pleased" with the high court's ruling.
Jonathan Shurberg, the attorney for plaintiffs Richard D. Boltuck and his daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Boltuck, said the court appeared to concur with his primary argument that there was no conflict between the constitution and election law.
The State Board of Elections said in December that 17-year- olds who will turn 18 before the November general election could cast ballots in the Democratic or Republican primary. That decision left unclear the issue of early voters in nonpartisan elections.
Seventeen-year-olds were allowed to vote in Maryland primaries until December 2006, when Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. determined that early voting, which the Court of Appeals had just supported, was illegal.
The Board of Elections subsequently began barring 17-year- olds from voting in the primaries.
Under pressure from the major political parties and others, Gansler reconsidered and found that the state's political parties have the right to decide who will choose their nominees, and the Board of Elections reversed its policy in December. Since then, at least 12,000 17-year-olds have registered to vote.
nicole.fuller@baltsun.com