Time Runs Out for OK Ballot Access Reform Bill

Free & Equal Elections has been working with Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform (OBAR) to pass an improved ballot access law in Oklahoma. The following is a press release from OBAR.

Oklahoma City (May 18, 2009) – A ballot access reform bill which received strong support in the state legislature this year was tabled in Conference Committee Monday after House and Senate leaders failed to agree on new requirements for forming a recognized political party in the state. The move will give the committee a chance to revisit the legislation again next year.

“The fact that HB1072 received support early in it’s 2009 journey showed us in OBAR that legislators are waking up to the fact that their constituents are interested no longer in party loyalties above representing their interests.” said Joni LeViness, chair of Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform. “However, the pulling back of support in the Conference Committee tells us that we have a lot more educating to do. Not only on this issue of ballot reform, but of stopping the petty divisions that Oklahomans are really out of patience with.”

House Bill 1072, authored by Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, passed both houses of the legislature this year, albeit in different forms, by a combined vote of 132 – 5, including unanimous support in the Senate. The bill was tabled, however, after a Conference Committee failed to agree on a final version of the bill.

Current law asks that new parties demonstrate support by getting signatures of tens of thousands of registered voters in the state. The law requires signatures equal to five percent of the previous gubernatorial or presidential election turnout, or 73,000 signatures to get on the 2010 ballot.

Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform has been asking state lawmakers since 2004 to return the state’s signature threshold to 5,000, which was the requirement from 1924 – 1974.

A House version of the bill, passed 86-5 on March 11, would have tied the signature requirement to only the gubernatorial election. The change would have lowered the threshold by nearly 30,000 signatures for the 2010 election.

The Senate, meanwhile, passed a more aggressive version 46-0 on April 1 which asked for a three percent petition — a difference of about 50,000 signatures for 2010.

Oklahoma is regarded as having the most onerous ballot access petition requirements in the union. Oklahoma was the only state in both the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections to have only two candidates – the Democrat and Republican – on the ballot.

Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, a national newsletter that examines states’ ballot access laws, said “Oklahoma is the only state in the nation in which a party can’t place its nominees for all statewide offices on the general election ballot with the party label unless it does a five percent petition,” Winger said. “All the other states have procedures at or below two percent, except that Alabama is three percent of the last gubernatorial vote. Oklahoma is all alone in being above three percent.”

OBAR Vice Chair and Oklahoma Libertarian Party representative Angelia O’Dell said, “I feel that we have had a great run with House Bill 1072 and I’m looking forward to educating the House on the ballot access problems that all third parties face in Oklahoma and seeing this bill pass next year.”

Meanwhile, a number of other states this year have considered or successfully lowered their ballot access requirements including Arkansas, West Virginia, and Utah, according to Free and Equal, a national ballot-access proponent and OBAR supporter.

……

OBAR is a coalition made up of the Libertarian Party of Oklahoma, the Green Party of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Constitution Party, the Oklahoma Socialist Party, and the Oklahoma Coalition of Independents. Supporting or endorsing organizations include Free and Equal, FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy, The Coalition for Free and Open Elections, Common Cause Oklahoma, The Progressive Alliance and Instant Runoff Oklahoma. This group is unified with the simple goal of making laws fair for new political parties.

—–30—–

Recently the Free & Equal Elections Foundation donated a substantial amount of money to OBAR, to help cover the cost of a lobbyist. Now, with the bill on hold until next February, OBAR needs to raise enough money to cover the lobbyists’ previous efforts, as well as retain him through next year. Please, if you are able, make a donation to Free & Equal for Oklahoma Ballot Access, and help us reform restrictive ballot access laws nationwide!