March 18, 2024

Democracy Watch

Lawmakers Advance Bills Cracking Down on Ballot Initiatives, Ranked Choice Voting 

By Keaton Ross | Democracy/Criminal Justice Reporter

During a hectic deadline week that featured hours of debate and floor sessions extending well past regular business hours, several proposals affecting Oklahoma voters cleared the Legislature. 

House Bill 1105, which would increase the legal challenge period for initiative petitions from 10 to 90 days, require circulators to pay $50 each for an OSBI background check and implement a refundable $1,000 filing fee, cleared the House on a mostly party-line vote. Rep. Daniel Pae of Lawton was the only Republican to vote no on the bill. 

Several House Democrats argued the measure would dissuade citizen participation in initiative petitions and add financial burdens to grassroots campaigns. While the bill does not prohibit someone with a criminal record from collecting signatures, Democrats expressed fears that criminal history information could be compiled and made public. 

“This is an extremely rare, precious thing that belongs to the people, and as preemptive legislation, this body is doing everything they can to take that power and freedom away from Oklahomans,” said Rep. Mickey Dollens, D-Oklahoma City. Dollens hosted an interim study on improving the state’s ballot initiative process last September.

Presenting the bill on behalf of House Speaker Charles McCall, Majority Floor Leader John Echols described HB1105 as a transparency measure designed to give Oklahomans more information on who is circulating petitions. He said 10 days is insufficient for groups to challenge an initiative.

“The biggest problem with initiative petitions is dark money, we don’t know who’s behind it,” Echols said. “This bill shines a little additional light on what’s going on in that process.”

House Joint Resolution 1054, a sweeping measure to require circulators to collect a percentage of signatures in all 77 counties, did not receive a hearing and is effectively dead. 

A bill to ban ranked choice voting statewide, House Bill 3156 by Eric Roberts, R-Oklahoma City, cleared the House on a mostly party-line vote. The proposal faced pushback from Democrats who argued the measure thwarts local control. Rep. Marcus McEntire of Duncan was the sole Republican no vote. 

Several other Republican-led states, including Florida, Iowa and Idaho, have banned ranked choice voting in recent years, arguing that the system is overly complex and expensive to implement. The American Legislative Exchange Council offers model legislation to ban the voting method. 

Also advancing ahead of the March 14 deadline for bills to pass out of their originating chamber was House Bill 3694, which would lower the threshold for felony theft from $1,000 to $500. That’s a partial rollback of the criminal justice reform voters approved via State Question 780 in 2016. 

The Legislature will take some time off for spring break this week before returning to committees to consider bills from opposing chambers. Have thoughts, questions or story tips? Let me know at Kross@Oklahomawatch.org.

What I’m Reading This Week:

• Gangsters, Money and Murder: How Chinese Organized Crime is Dominating Oklahoma’s Illegal Medical Marijuana Market: A quadruple murder in Oklahoma shows how the Chinese underworld has come to dominate the booming illicit trade, fortifying its rise as a global powerhouse with alleged ties to China’s authoritarian regime. [The Frontier/ProPublica]
• Nex Benedict’s Death Ruled a Suicide in Medical Examiner’s Report: Benedict, 16, died Feb. 8, a day after getting in a fight in a girl’s bathroom at Owasso High School in a suburb north of Tulsa. Vigils honoring Benedict took place across the country, as the events leading up to their death prompted anger and devastation nationwide. [Oklahoma Voice]
• ‘Nationwide issue’: Childcare Bills Reflect Little-Discussed Aspect of Education, Workforce: As Oklahomans deal with a shortage of childcare centers, early childhood experts emphasize the importance of trained providers in the sector, saying that how a child is raised in its first few years can affect them for the rest of their life.[NonDoc]

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