Oklahoma voters will go the polls in just over a week.

The Feb. 8 elections will feature municipal races, including some high-profile mayoral contests, bond propositions and school board primaries for much of the state. (Click here to see what races, if any, you have in your community).

This is only the beginning of a busy election year for the state. There are several rounds of voting to come, along with many deadlines to register to vote or secure an absentee ballot.

To help keep track of what’s on tap for the coming year, here some key dates to add to your calendar:

• April 5: General election for school board races and special elections. (Early voting runs from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. March 31-April 1).
• April 13-15: Candidate filing period for federal, state, legislative, judicial and county offices.
• June 3: Voter registration deadline to vote in the primary election.
• June 28: Primary election for legislative, congressional, statewide and other races. (Early voting runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 23-24 and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 25).
• July 29: Voter registration deadline to vote in the run-off election.
• Aug. 23: Run-off election for legislative, congressional, statewide and other races. (Early voting runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 18-19 and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 20).
• Oct. 14: Voter registration deadline to vote in the general election.
• Nov. 8: General election for legislative, congressional, statewide and other races. (Early voting runs from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. Nov. 2-4 and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 6).

You can view all offices up for election this year here.

I’m curious to see what specific races will you be watching? Is it the governor’s race, one of the congressional contests or something else? Let me know what you are interested in — and what you’d like to see us focus on — by emailing me at tbrown@oklahomawatch.org or find me on Twitter at @tbrownokc.

Tweet Watch

It’s not uncommon for plenty of abortion-related bills to be filed, and heard, during Oklahoma’s legislative sessions.

But this year there will be a new spotlight on the proposals after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a Texas law that has virtually brought abortions to a halt for anyone more than six weeks pregnant.

That decision has sparked speculation that the country’s highest court could overturn Roe vs. Wade and allow states to make their own abortion restrictions.

Among the bills that have been filed is a proposal from the leader of the state Senate that would prohibit abortions 30 days after the start of a pregnant woman’s last menstrual cycle.  

What I’m Reading This Week

• COVID-19 hospitalizations are at all-time highs in Tulsa County and Oklahoma with the state’s latest data release Thursday, toppling records set in COVID’s original and delta variant waves. [Tulsa World]
• Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections announced Thursday that the state had completed the execution of Donald Grant, a man with a history of mental illness who admitted to committing a 2001 double murder in Del City.  [NonDoc]
• A small group of Republican lawmakers have introduced over 30 bills ahead of the 2022 legislative session to curb employer vaccine mandates and give legal protections to Oklahomans who refuse them.  [The Frontier]
• A new report from the Oklahoma Policy Institute shows that Oklahoma is among the nation’s least transparent states when engaging its residents during the development of the annual state budget.  [Oklahoma Policy Institute]
• A federal appeals court rejected a request from two Oklahoma death row inmates to temporarily halt their upcoming lethal injections. [The Associated Press]

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