Governor Rick Perry inadvertently disenfranchised millions of voters between the age of 18 and 21 in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Speaking at a town hall meeting on the campus of Saint Anselm College, Perry was stumping without incident, right down to the requisite applause pause after mentioning his plan to make Congress part-time. But as he moved on to a vote-for-me pitch, Perry stumbled twice in one short sentence.
“Those of you that . . . will be 21 by November 12th, I ask for your support and your vote,” Perry said. “Those of you who won’t be, just work hard.”
The legal voting age in the United States has been 18 since 1971. And Election Day this year is on November 6. (It bears noting that the New Hampshire primary is January 10.)
Unlike his infamous “I forget the third one” moment at an earlier Republic presidential primary debate, Perry didn’t seem to realize he had stepped in it, forging ahead with his comments about the national debt and “entitlement programs,” even as a few people in the audience laughed and tittered.
Perry later shrugged off the comment the next day, telling Fox News, “Look, I’m a human being, I’m going to make some mistakes sometime in my remarks.”
Watch the video below:
