On January 19, Oklahoma Representative Marian Cooksey introduced House Bill 1429, which greatly eases ballot access for minor parties. Current law requires 5% of the last vote cast, which for 2006 is a staggering 73,188 valid signatures. The bill would reduce this to 5,000 signatures, which was the requirement in Oklahoma between 1924 and 1974. The bill also lowers the number of votes needed for a party to remain on the ballot, from 10% for president or governor (whichever was most recent) to 1%.
If you want to follow the latest news on the fight for ballot access in Oklahoma go to: http://www.okballotchoice.org (OBAR is a coalition of Oklahoma’s Libertarian, Green, and Constitution parties)
From statehood until 1974, Oklahoma required only 5,000 signatures for ballot access but never had more than four presidential candidates on the ballot. Since 1974 there have been only 3 elections when Oklahoman’s had more than 2 presidential choices on Election Day. I applaud Representative Marian Cooksey’s courage to undo the damage done to Oklahoma’s voting process 30 years ago and her desire to return free and open elections to the people.
Thom Holmes
Constitution Party of Oklahoma
I’m a student at the University of Oklahoma and in October a few of my friends participated in a protest at the state capital to bring recognition to the fact that independants are being taxed w/out representation. They were completly ignored. As college students we are very worried about the state of our country and the government we are oppressed by, and we want choices. I can very easily help get quite a few signatures, and to be honest I feel that’s the only way to be active in a way that will get recognized. Please let me know how I can get started, I guarantee we will make a differance. Thank you for your efforts, and for giving all of the misguided, apathetic youth something to hope for. Jak
Half of Oklahoma’s state legislative seats were unopposed in the November 2006 general election. We need more voter choice. Visit http://www.OkVoterChoice.org to see news about the ballot access reform effort in Oklahoma.