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Oklahoma United Responds to Governor Signing SB 1027
“Bad Policy That Silences Voters and Invites Legal Defeat”
OKLAHOMA CITY — Late last week, Governor Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1027 into law, finalizing a deeply flawed piece of legislation that undermines Oklahomans’ constitutional right to shape their government through the citizen initiative process.
Oklahoma United, a nonpartisan civic advocacy organization, strongly opposed the bill throughout the legislative process and is preparing for the legal challenges that are sure to follow.
“SB 1027 is bad policy,” said Margaret Kobos, Founder and CEO of Oklahoma United. “It suppresses voter input, makes it harder for Oklahomans to hold their elected officials accountable, and sends the message that those in power don’t trust the people who put them there.SB 1027 does nothing but prove that Oklahomans’ long held distrust of state government is well-earned.”
SB 1027 imposes severe and arbitrary restrictions on citizen-led petitions—including caps on how many signatures can be collected in each county, new bureaucratic hurdles, and unconstitutional limits on who can participate in the process.
“This legislation is not only undemocratic, it’s an offensive attack on our constitution,” Kobos said. “Oklahoma is now opening itself up to expensive litigation that it will lose,” she said. “Instead of solving real problems, lawmakers have chosen to pass a political bill that silences their own constituents.”
Oklahoma United remains committed to fair processes and elections that increase citizen participation and bring accountability, transparency, choices, and fairness to all voters.
Oklahoma United supports sq 836 for fully OPEN PRIMARies.
THE OKLAHOMAN, 3/9/25
Bill that dramatically changes initiative, referendum process clears Senate committee
At least one nationally recognized expert on the U.S. Constitution said the bill's restrictions on the initiative process are unconstitutional. Robert McCampbell, an Oklahoma City attorney who specializes in constitutional law, wrote that the bill was unconstitutional.'
"The bill includes provisions that restrict petition circulators, prohibit out-of-state contributions, grant broad discretionary power to the secretary of state over citizen-initiated petitions, and retroactively change the procedure for initiative petitions. Each of these provisions conflicts with well-established legal precedent," McCampbell wrote in a four-page memo analyzing the measure.
The government, McCampbell said, is not free to "impose burdensome roadblocks to the citizen initiative process."
"The courts are unanimous that circulating a petition is 'core political speech' where First Amendment protection is at its 'zenith," he wrote. "The restrictions on core political speech embodied in SB 1027 cannot survive scrutiny under the First Amendment."
Other opponents of the bill, echoing McCampbell, said SB 1027 would "make it dramatically harder for Oklahomans to bring issues directly to a vote, undermining one of the most fundamental avenues for public participation in policymaking."
"(The) vote to advance SB 1027 is a disappointing step backward for democracy in Oklahoma. By making it harder for citizens to bring issues to the ballot, lawmakers are silencing the voices of everyday Oklahomans and limiting public participation in policymaking," said Margaret Kobos, founder of Oklahoma United. "The right to petition is fundamental to our state's history and this bill adds unnecessary barriers that will make it nearly impossible for grassroots efforts to succeed."
