17-Year-Olds Win Right to Vote in Illinois Primaries

Seventeen-year-olds in Illinois will be able to vote in primary elections if their 18th birthday falls before the general election, according to a new bill signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn.

The Democratic governor signed the measure at Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill. flanked by faculty and students who supported the new law, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Twenty other states have already passed similar laws allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections and caucuses if they will be 18 on or before the general election including Illinois neighbors, Iowa and Indiana.

The Illinois House of Representatives passed the measure 95 to 22 and the Senate passed the bill 43 to 9 before sending it to Quinn's desk. The voting law will go into effect January 1, 2014, as the Prairie State get's ready for its next major primary and general elections.