On the afternoon of April 22, the Oklahoma Senate passed HB 2181. As amended earlier in the Senate Rules Committee, it lowers the petition for a newly-qualifying party from 5% of the last vote cast, to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote.
The bill already passed the House at 1%. Now it goes back to the House, which is expected to approve the Senate version of the bill. Assuming the bill is signed into law, the number of signatures in 2016 for a newly-qualifying party will fall from 41,242 valid signatures to 24,745. The number of signatures in 2018 would also be 24,745. In 2014 the requirement had been 66,744.
The vote on the Senate floor was 37-4. Thanks to Wes Benedict for this news. The four Senators who voted “No” are: Mark Allen (R-Spiro), Larry Boggs (R-Wilburton), Ron Sharp (R-Shawnee), and Wayne Shaw (R-Grove).
If it becomes official law, the LP would have no problem collecting that amount of signatures and remaining on the ballot there.
I suspect if a state party can get its act together there, the Green Party could also muster that many valid signatures.
Cody,
While it is not impossible to meet the petitioning requirement at this point, the fact that the retention requirement is still 10% of every election means new parties will almost always have to petition each and every election.
We will have to see if we can get the legislature to change that next year. Until then, this is only a baby step.
Joshua,
The OK Green Party has expressed their confidence that they can meet this requirement.