Oklahoma State Senator David Holt (R-Oklahoma City) has introduced SB 318. It lowers the number of signatures needed for a newly-qualifying party to get on the ballot, and also lowers the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate, or the presidential nominee of an unqualified party, to get on the ballot.

Currently, the party petition is 5% of the last vote cast. The bill lowers that to 2% of the last vote cast. Currently the independent presidential petition, and the petition for the presidential nominee of an unqualified party, is 3% of the last presidential vote. The bill lowers those to 2% of the last presidential vote. The bill also changes the petition deadline for the presidential petitions from July 15 to July 1.

If the bill were enacted, the 2016 petition requirement for new party petitions would be 16,967 valid signatures.

Senator Holt is the Majority Whip of the Senate. Thanks to E. Zacheery Knight for this news.