19th November 2024
By Steve Metzer
Oklahomans who hope to fundamentally change the state’s election system by doing away with closed primaries announced the launch of an initiative petition for a state question on Tuesday.
Supporters of the Oklahoma United organization gathered at the Oklahoma History Center, a short distance from the Capitol, to announce the filing of an initiative petition to put State Question 835 to a statewide vote in November 2026. The goal, they said, would be to allow all registered voters, regardless of party affiliation, to choose from among all candidates listed on a single primary ballot. The top two vote-getters in the primary would then advance to a general election.
Petition organizers, including Republicans, Democrats and registered independents, said the state’s current system has led to an unhealthy polarization of voters, many of whom feel disregarded or as if their votes don’t matter, and to a belief that election outcomes are typically decided by relatively small numbers of highly partisan voters.
Oklahoma United founder Margaret Kobos said the initiative petition was filed with the Secretary of State’s Office on Monday. After a start date is set, she said supporters will have 90 days to collect at least 172,993 signatures to get SQ 835 on ballots for a statewide vote. The number required represents 15% of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.
“(SQ 835) will end our state’s closed primary system, and it will be replaced with an open primary system in which all lawfully registered voters will be able to vote in all elections,” Kobos said. “Regardless of how you are registered or how the candidate is registered, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or independent, simply put, all voters will be included; all voters will matter.”
Oklahoma’s current closed primary system allows only for voters registered with a particular party to vote in that party’s primary. At times, independents have been allowed to vote in Democratic primaries, but that hasn’t been guaranteed in every election cycle.
Kobos said the current system has led many people to simply tune out of politics.
“Oklahoma is last in U.S. voter turnout,” she said. “And, inconceivably, our turnout percentage actually dropped even lower this fall than it was four years ago. So we were last before, and I guess we’re more last now.”
Former Republican state Sen. A.J. Griffin said that in the current closed primary system, election outcomes are typically decided in primary and runoff votes by perhaps only 10% to 20% of people who would classify as highly partisan or ideological. As a result, candidates have become more inclined to align their views only with those voters, which has led many others to feel disenfranchised.
Anthony Stobbe, one of three people who filed the initiative petition, said he had a career in the Coast Guard before settling in Edmond. He is a registered independent and noted that “more than half” of military service members don’t affiliate with any party.
There are more than 480,000 registered independents in Oklahoma, and independents represent the fastest growing group of voters in the state.
“It’s not a Republican cause or a Democratic cause or even an independent cause. It’s an Oklahoma cause,” Stobbe said. “The current system that we have in place says to me and numerous others (that) your opinions don’t matter. And to add insult to injury, my taxpayer dollars and your taxpayer dollars pay for the very elections that I can’t participate in.”
Oklahoma is one of only 12 states with closed primaries; 38 states have some form of an open primary in which independents are allowed to vote.
Others who spoke at the Oklahoma United rally included Dr. Donnie Nero, former president of Connors State College; and Julie Knutson, president and chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals.
Nero said he fears that Oklahoma’s current system has left his grandchildren and many other young people disinclined to vote. People in rural and minority communities may also feel similarly cynical of the political process.
“They often feel that their voices don’t matter … (and) that they have no stake in the choices that affect their lives,” he said.
Knutson said town hall meetings held by the Academy for State Goals have left her convinced that Oklahomans are tired of highly polarized politics and that many would support a change to open primary elections.