In an email to supporters today, the ballot access reform organization Free and Equal is asking people to contact Oklahoma state legislators and urge them to pass a ballot access reform bill. The email:
Oklahoma’s largest newspaper, The Oklahoman, mentioned Free & Equal in an editorial titled “Access endeavor” on March 6. The daily paper claimed that our support for House Bill 1072 – a measure to ease the state’s third party signature requirement – probably won’t “do much good” because Oklahoma lawmakers are “reluctant” towards reform.
Is The Oklahoman trying to tell us something? Are the Sooner State lawmakers really that stubborn? From what we hear from our friends with Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform, the answer is “yes.” This is interesting coming from such a proudly conservative state where the people supposedly have a distaste for government intrusion. Isn’t government telling people who they can vote for the highest form of intrusion?
Oklahoma was, in fact, the only state where every county went red for the GOP in the last two presidential elections. And in both of those elections, Oklahoma was the only state that held every third-party challenger off its ballots with its astronomical signature requirement and lack of write-in option.
You might recall that Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb ran a safe-state campaign in 2004 to please the “anybody but Bush” crowd who were concerned about any leftist pull on the Democrats. It’s funny that the safest of the “safe states,” where one party historically wins by a landslide, would keep him off the ballot. Cobb probably would have helped the Republicans in Oklahoma.
What’s more, The Oklahoman says in its editorial that allowing third parties on the ballot won’t cost the state a dime. Again, this sounds like something that should appeal to Oklahoma’s GOP-controlled legislature, but alias, they are still reluctant.
Free & Equal board member Richard Winger wants to know what the Oklahoma lawmakers are so afraid of. He’s right. We should be asking them this question, even though we know the answer. They are afraid of a little competition, which just goes to show that the Democrats and Republicans will always agree on something – keeping third parities out.
OBAR recently put out a news release that included the names and contact information of the conference committee members who will decide the fate of HB 1072 very soon. Per the advice of OBAR’s lobbyist, Mark Snyder, Free & Equal encourages everyone to contact these members to show support for the bill, but please be courteous and informative. Please don’t send form letters. The committee members are:
House
Senate
What is the reduction we are supposed to support? Something is often the same as nothing. We can safely assume the Conference Cmte will not go back to the 1924-1974 standard of 5,000 petition sigs because that would guarantee defeat in the House and/or Senate. So what if the bill reduces the barrier to three percent of the last vote for governor? Will they also allow at least 18 months to circulate the petition? Based on 36 years of experience with this state’s legislators, I don’t trust them to do anything substantive – like 200 signatures on a petition with one year to gather. Philosophically, that would still be illegitimate, IMO, since I am an abolitionist.
so the submit button now works ………..
Randy Brogdon can be counted on to vote for the bill.
Once again leftists/progressives/revolutionaries beg the reactionaries.
Thanks for writing and posting this.