OKLAHOMANS for BALLOT ACCESS REFORM (OBAR)
For Immediate Release
March 13,
2009
Contact: Angelia O’Dell 918-510-8315 Angelia@OkVoterChoice.org
Ballot Access Reform Bill Passes House
House Bill
1072 passed the Oklahoma House around midnight on Wednesday in an 86-5 vote and
will next receive a vote in the Senate.
This bill takes a small step toward easing Oklahoma ballot access laws,
considered the most restrictive in the country.
“Oklahoma was the only state
where voters were limited to just two choices for president in 2004. This then happened again in 2008. Oklahoma sticks out like a sore thumb when it
comes to our state’s ballot access laws. This bill would take a small step in
the right direction,” said Angelia O’Dell, Chair of the Libertarian Party of
Oklahoma.
To form a new political party, Oklahoma law
currently requires signatures equal to 5% of the last presidential or
gubernatorial vote, which means over 73,000 signatures in 2010. This number was over TEN TIMES the per capita
requirement of many neighboring states, including Texas, Missouri, and New
Mexico.
HB
1072, introduced by Representative Charles Key (R-OKC), would make the
signature requirement to form a new political party always be based on the
gubernatorial turnout, often less than turnout for presidential elections. With this change the requirement in 2010
would be 46,323 signatures, based on the 2006 gubernatorial turnout, instead of
the 73,134 shown in the chart below, which is based on the 2008 presidential
election turnout. This means Oklahoma
would still require more signatures than any of our surrounding states.
Current Signature Requirements for 2010 Election Cycle
|
Ranking |
State |
Petitioning requirement for full party ballot access |
Petitioning Requirement per million residents |
|
1 |
Oklahoma |
73,134 |
20,079 |
|
2 |
Texas |
43,991 |
1,808 |
|
3 |
Kansas |
16,944 |
6,065 |
|
4-tie |
Missouri |
10,000 |
1,692 |
|
4-tie |
Arkansas |
10,000 |
3,502 |
|
6 |
New Mexico |
2,794 |
1,408 |
|
7-tie |
Colorado |
1,000* |
202* |
|
7-tie |
Louisiana |
1,000* |
227* |
* Colorado and Louisiana require 1,000 to register under the new party’s affiliation for ballot access.
** Requirements from Ballot Access News, www.ballot-access.org
With its current language, HB
1072 would not address Oklahoma’s 5% requirement. Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News,
recently wrote, “Oklahoma is the only state in the nation in which a party
can't place its nominees for all statewide office on the general election
ballot with the party label, unless it does a 5% petition. All the
other states have procedures at or below 2%, except that Alabama is 3% of the
last gubernatorial vote. Oklahoma is all alone in being above 3%.”
In 2007, OBAR collected over 14,000 signatures for an
initiative would return the number of signatures for recognition of political
party back to 5,000, the number
required in Oklahoma from 1924 until 1974.
OBAR is a coalition of the
Libertarian, Green, and Constitution Parties and the Oklahoma Coalition of
Independents, unified with the simple goal of making laws fair for new
political parties.