On February 20, the Oklahoma House Rules Committee passed HB 2134. The vote was 7-0 and the Committee did not amend the bill. The bill lowers the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party to exactly 5,000 signatures.

Two years ago, the same Committee also passed a similar bill (HB 1058), but first amended it to raise it to 22,500 signatures. Thus, it appears the Oklahoma House is more in favor of ballot access reform now than it was two years ago. Two years ago, the House passed the bill at 22,500, probably thinking the Senate would see that as a compromise between 5,000 and 5% of the last vote cast. But the Senate spurned the compromise and refused to pass any bill other than 5% of the last gubernatorial vote. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.