Youth Vote Restored to Maryland Primaries

Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) stood outside of the Flower Valley Elementary School polling station today in Maryland's fourth congressional district, greeting voters and handing out fliers next to a few volunteers who were running a bake sale. Wynn has endorsed Se. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president and is a member of the Congressional Out of Iraq caucus. He is battling fellow Democrat Donna Edwards for a seat they closely contested in the 2006. She touts herself as a candidate of "Change" on her Web site next to a picture of her greeting Obama, who she too has endorsed.

50,000 Maryland voters who will be 18 by the general election, but are 17 at the time of the primaries, have been the subject of some legal wrangling. Maryland Assistant Attorney General Mark Davis interpreted a Dec. 11, 2006 court decision, intended to prohibit early voting on constitutional grounds, as also forbidding 17-year-olds from voting in their parties' primaries. Attorney General Doug Gansler restored the practice, which has years of precedent in Maryland, in a Dec. 19 2007, legal opinion after the decision was decried in a Dec. 2 op-ed in The Washington Post.

The voters in question were mailed notifications reaffirming their right to participate in the primaries. Feb. 9 polls by SurveyUSA indicated that voters between the ages of 18 and 34 favored Obama, who was preferred by 62 percent of respondents, and John McCain, favored by 57 percent. Both candidates polled lower among older voters.