Letter Published in The Oklahoman Newspaper Takes OK State Senator to Task for Trying to Make the Initiative & Referendum Process More Difficult in Oklahoma

State’s ballot access restrictive, contrary to Sen. Daniels’ claim

In response to M. Scott Carter’s Dec. 3, 2023, otherwise excellent piece (“Why does one legislator have a quest to protect Oklahoma’s initiative and referendum law?”), we respectfully disagree with Sen. Julie Daniels’ assertion that “it’s not as difficult to get on the ballot in Oklahoma as it is in other states.” On the contrary, our state has the nation’s most restrictive ballot access requirements. When you make an already costly process even more difficult, it allows only the big-monied interests, rather than grassroots citizen groups, to qualify.

Oklahoma’s process includes several benchmarks which separate legitimate ballot measures from unpopular or ill-conceived ones. At least seven unique obstacles must be successfully navigated before a state question can appear before voters.

Moreover, of the states that allow for initiated constitutional amendments, Oklahoma ties Arizona for the highest per capita signature requirement. Oklahoma’s 90-day signature gathering period is the nation’s shortest. Only Massachusetts has a shorter timeframe, 60 days, but that’s for indirect amendments that must also be approved by its Legislature, not an apples-to-apples comparison. For example, Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and South Dakota allow two years to gather signatures. Ohio has no time limit.

Daniels’ Senate Bill 518 would make this process even more difficult. Some lawmakers think it’s easy to qualify ballot measures. It’s not. Furthermore, creating any supermajority requirement kills the process entirely. Oklahoma’s constitutional framers anticipated these moments — legislative aims at power consolidation — and believed the people’s rights should be preserved and protected. We believe that, too. Let’s keep direct democracy accessible to all.

— Brendan Hoover, Oklahoma City


Comments

Letter Published in The Oklahoman Newspaper Takes OK State Senator to Task for Trying to Make the Initiative & Referendum Process More Difficult in Oklahoma — 22 Comments

  1. ANTI-DEMOCRACY MINORITY RULE GERRYMANDERS IN ALL 50 STATE LEGISLATURES —

    1/2 OR LESS VOTES X 1/2 CRACKED/PACKED GERRYMANDER DISTRICTS = 1/4 OR LESS CONTROL = OLIGARCHY

    SUPER-WORSE EXTREMIST PRIMARY MATH — UNDER 10 PCT REAL CONTROL — WITH ULTRA EXTREMIST MONARCH GANG BOSSES = UNDER 0.001 PCT REAL REAL CONTROL OF STATE LAWS.

    4-4 RFG AND 14-1 EP CL SUBVERTED

    PR
    APPV
    TOTSOP

  2. Well said Mr. Hoover. And ballot access quotas for candidates ought to be abolished and replaced by an all write-in ballot with a voter verifiable secret ballot receipt which cannot disclose for whom one votes but only that one’s ballot has not been tampered with.

  3. There should be no ballots. If there have to be ballots, they should absolutely not be secret. Voter initiatives are a failed idea which has worked out nothing like promised.

    Specialization in tasks and division of labor are good things. However bad legislators are at legislation, the general public is even worse at it. Same principle as lawyers, dentists, car mechanics, landscapers, plumbers, electricians etc.

    There’s no point in asking for evidence on how proposed AZ “Solutions” would fix stated AZ Problems or achieve stated goals rather than the opposite , because no such evidence exists.

    Would something achieve those goals / results at least incrementally? Yes. Almost always, with rare exceptions, the polar opposite direction AZ naively or disingenuously suggests.

    This is addressed to people other than AZ because direct engagement with AZ is at best pointless and usually counterproductive.

  4. Everyone is a moron, hack, troll etc in AZ world except AZ.

    If AZ is so much smarter than every one else, why has he not been more successful?

    If you get consistently outplayed in tic tac toe , 52 pick up, etc, it’s prima facie evidence you are the moron, not those who are beating you . Playing those games at all is not the best of signs. Losing them on a consistent basis is a worse sign. Being a sideline critic of those games whose suggestions would lead to even more consistent losing, even worse than that.

    So, if all those folks are morons, it should be easy for AZ to either ignore them or beat them . Results speak for themselves.

    Physicians make bad patients, just like lawyers hire lawyers for good reason. Never the less, physician, heal thyself is also valid advice.

    I will apply this to myself: previous best results of political activity were George Wallace coming within a few campaign stops of balance of power in 1968, Reagan 1980, Gingrich and friends 1994, and best yet Trump 2016. Better than all of them combined will be Trump 2024, because of all the hard learned lessons of all the previous victories and setbacks.

    Examples of AZ lawsuit / activism / pundit / expert consultant wins?

  5. Why doesn’t AZ run for office instead of wasting our time with his dribble? Put up or shut up.

  6. He’s running for President on the Retard Party ticket. His running mate is George Santos.

  7. Why isn’t Santos at the top of the ticket? Better known, younger, former congressman, almost certainly taller and better looking than Jones, and not a shut in.

    Of course there’s the matter of his Brazilian (birth, not wax), but Osama bin Hussein was born in Kenya to a Muslim family and grew up in Indonesia before being officially enrolled in the Democratic People’s Republic of Harvard while actually serving as a CIA-Mujaheddin-People’s Army Intel liaison officer and triple agent in Tora Bora, yet they let him be president of the US for two terms by implausibly trying to pass him off as a biracial Hawaiian Christian with a fake birth certificate. Something that would be right up Santos…alley.

    Then again, we already have a geriatric shut in retard in the oval office, and he’s willing and eligible to serve through 2029. Perhaps the Santos Jones ticket should gather support before an official launch in 2027-8?

    And lastly, we have not had a Presidential ticket running in a non president year since, as far as I can remember, 2014. Jones Santos might be just that ticket for 2026. The field may well even be clear for a win by default.

  8. James Ogle ran for President in 2014.

    Jones is top of ticket because he’s the bigger retard. Plain and simple.

  9. Good lord. He said the quiet part out loud. You don’t say that name for the same reason you shouldn’t say candyman six times in a row.

  10. Oklahoman Newspaper
    OK state senator
    In Oklahoma

    OK, OK, OK, we get it! But what state was this in?

    In unrelated news, I have a half off offer for those who enroll in the Spring Semester Headline Writing 101 course at OK OK OK College by Christmas eve. Ok?

  11. Jones is a better top of ticket than Milnes. Stock is on the replacement list.

  12. That’s actually Andy Frankle. The photo was taken by Angela Davis in Bummingham around 2013.

  13. I’m only getting more and more confused. I’m not sure if it’s possible for me to become any more retarded, but if it is, it’s most likely happening right as we type.

  14. Why not put a candidate/third party ballot access initiative on the ballot?

  15. Because nobody who cares about that will spend that amount of money if they even have it, Edward Brown. Also , please keep your weird sexual fantasies to yourself.

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