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Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform calls for relaxed party requirements by Janice Francis-Smith The Journal Record, September 17, 2007 www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=81799 OKLAHOMA CITY – Free-market competition results in better products and services for consumers, so free ballot access should likewise result in better candidates, Matthew Jones said Friday. As chairman of Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform, Jones announced the group had filed an initiative petition at the Oklahoma secretary of state’s office on Friday. The petition would relax the requirements for political parties to get their candidates on election ballots in Oklahoma. Article Tools Printer friendly edition E-mail this to a friend RSS Feed Digg this history Add to Del.icio.us Leaders of the coalition are active in the Green, Libertarian and Constitution parties. Oklahoma has the strictest ballot access laws in the nation, said Jones. The group has three months to gather more than 74,000 signatures. Oklahoma law requires a political party seeking recognition in the state to first gather the signatures of at least 5 percent of the number of people who voted in the last general election for governor or for president. More than 926,000 people voted in the 2006 gubernatorial election, so an aspiring political party seeking to join the next statewide election would need to collect more than 46,000 signatures. The initiative petition filed Friday would lower that requirement to 5,000 signatures. Oklahoma law also requires that, if a party successfully gets a candidate on the ballot, that candidate must gain at least 10 percent of the vote in any general election. If not, the party loses its recognition and has to start the process all over again. The initiative petition would require a party’s candidate to gain 1 percent of the vote in any two consecutive general elections. Nearly 30 states allow ballot access with 5,000 or fewer signatures, as did Oklahoma before the law was changed in 1974, said Jones. Oklahoma was the only state to provide its voters with just two candidates for president in the 2004 elections, Jones said, while other states with less stringent ballot access laws had as many as 10 candidates on the ballot. Click here to find out how you can join the campaign for FAIR and DEMOCRATIC ballot acccess laws.