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You matter here.
As we prepare to commemorate the anniversary of the April 19 Oklahoma City bombing Saturday, we encourage you to read the Tulsa World’s recent article “What did the Oklahoma City bombing teach you?” It’s a poignant look at what many of the key players learned from the horrific experience – about the senseless loss of life but also about Oklahomans’ ability to come together in a crisis. On Saturday, let’s honor those who died, offer thanks for all the people who helped the survivors, and remember that even in the face of hardship we can come together and overcome – we’re Oklahomans.
SB 1027 has passed in the Oklahoma State Senate, two State House committees, and is headed to the House Floor. Here’s how you can help prevent this damaging bill from becoming law:
Subject: Please oppose SB 1027
Dear (Representative’s Name)
I’m writing as your constituent to urge you to oppose SB 1027. This bill would make it significantly harder for everyday Oklahomans like me to bring important issues to the ballot through the initiative petition process.
Oklahoma already has one of the most difficult petition systems in the country. SB 1027 adds even more unnecessary restrictions that would silence the voices of citizens and limit our ability to participate in our own democracy.
Please stand up for the rights of your constituents and vote no on SB 1027.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
Facts about Oklahoma Citizen Petitions:
● Oklahoma has the highest per capita signature requirement of any U.S. state. (Oklahoma requires 172,993 signatures for a constitutional amendment petition).
● Oklahoma has the shortest time of any U.S. state to collect signatures (only 90 days). Ohio has no limit on signature collection. Arkansas has over six times that amount to collect signatures (20 months). ballotpedia.org
What’s Inside Senate Bill 1027?
· Only 9.7% of registered voters could sign a constitutional amendment petition and only 5.4% for a statutory change petition in any county.
· These limits disenfranchise 90-95% of registered voters from signing an initiative petition.
· Oklahoma petitioners routinely obtain signatures from every county. The most recent successful petition campaign collected signatures from all 77 counties.
· SB 1027 would require signature collectors to be OK-registered voters. This has been declared unconstitutional by a US appellate court.
· SB 1027mandates only in-state collection firms, which eliminates competitive pricing.
· Out-of-state contributions would be banned. This violates the US Supreme ruling that this is an unconstitutional violation of free speech.
· The Secretary of State, a political appointee, would be given the power to reject petitions based on subjective language criteria.
Conclusions
· SB 1027 is an unprecedented attack on citizen engagement and would make it virtually impossible for many grassroots organizations to engage in the initiative petition process. No other state has implemented this level of burden on petitioners or petition signers.
· SB 1027 suppresses voters in all counties
· SB 1027 is likely unconstitutional in violation of multiple state and federal laws.
Oklahoma United is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to supporting and empowering every Oklahoma voters and creating connections between citizens and government with meaningful representation and elections.
We research, produce, and share information about Oklahoma elections and how we can better connect government to the people. We create action plans for nonpartisan ideas with the potential to improve voter engagement and elected official accountability. We are working to pass SQ 836 for fully open primaries on a single ballot so we can all vote for whoever we want in the elections we're all paying for!
Only with your support. Volunteer. Ask about our Internship program. Donate. Get in touch. Attend one of our events. Read our articles. Watch one of our videos. Spread the word. Write you own Letter to the Editor or op-ed. Sign up for our socials and emails on this website and join the thousands of your friends and neighbors who are ready to make a difference today and give our children the tools they will need for a future we can only imagine.
Oklahoma is dead last in voter participation.
We were told you don't exist. And yet here you are.
Democracy is defined by the freedom to vote.
But in closed partisan elections, Oklahomans are ignored and have no or poor choices on ballots in the elections we all fund with our tax dollars.
This is why we don't bother voting, and the politicians are A-OK with status quo. They have zero interest in what matters to the majority of us.
Open primaries lessen the influence of political insiders and encourage candidates to be responsive to all their constituents.
Voter turnout is the sign of a healthy democracy. Unfortunately, Oklahoma ranks LAST in voter turnout. Our citizens have figured out they don't matter in a primary system that fails to produce competitive races and disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of voters.
Three concerned citizens have filed SQ 836, a citizen petition. After a period for the public to review the filing and bring legal objections, the proponents of SQ 836 will have 90 days to collect 172, 993 signatures (15 percent of the total votes cast for governor in 2022). Once the signatures are submitted and approved, Governor Kevin Stitt will set a date for SQ 836 to appear on a statewide ballot. At that point, Oklahomans will vote on whether to move the state to an open primary system.
Former State Senator (Republican) AJ Griffin explains open primaries and State Question 836 before the CommonSense Club meeting in Shawnee.
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."