On April 25, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously passed HB 1058. The bill now goes to a conference committee, because the version the House passed last year is different than the Senate version. The House version is much better. It lowers the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties to exactly 22,500. The Senate version keeps the same petition requirement as the existing law, in presidential election years; but it lowers the number of signatures in mid-term years. Existing law requires signatures of 5% of the last vote cast, but the Senate version changes this to 5% of the last gubernatorial vote cast. Oklahoma, like most states, elects its Governors in midterm years.

If the Senate version had been law in the past, the number of signatures in 2010 would have been 46,324 signatures. In reality, the requirement was 73,134. So, the improvement in midterm years is very significant. However, it is disappointing that the Senate version offers no improvement whatsoever in presidential years. Thanks to Richard Prawdzienski for this news.