From Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:
On March 10, the Oklahoma House passed HB 2181 by a vote of 90-0. The eleven members who didn’t vote were all excused that day, which means that no legislator who was in the chamber abstained. The bill now goes to the State Senate. It lowers the petition for a newly-qualifying party to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
From the Libertarian Party website:
The Libertarian Party of Oklahoma, the state with the most difficult petitioning requirements in the country for presidential candidates, may see big relief if a bill passed unanimously on March 11 in the state’s House of Representatives becomes law.
The required number of signatures to get on the ballot would drop from 5 percent of the votes cast in the last general election for governor, which for 2016 will be 41,188 signatures, to just 1 percent, or 8,294 signatures.
The last time the Libertarian Party was on the ballot in Oklahoma was 2000.
On Friday, March 6, OKLP filed a Notice of Intent with the Secretary of State’s office, as required by law, to start petitioning for the 2016 elections.
Oklahoma Libertarians attempted to get on the ballot in 2012. 51,739 valid signatures were needed that year, which requires collecting at least 70,000 raw signatures since many will be disqualified (typical validity rates are 70-75 percent). Only about 51,000 raw signatures were turned in — far too few to make the ballot.
The LP also filed suit that year challenging the state’s early petitioning deadline. Although the suit was withdrawn, Richard Winger, publisher of Ballot Access News, said both the lawsuit and the petitioning, which helped make the case for the lawsuit, created pressure that is helping to advance the bill now before the legislature.
“With ballot access, it pays to press for improvement for years,” said Winger. “Persistent action really pays off. There is almost no instance in which we failed to get relief when we complained year after year.”
Libertarians saw a ballot access bill pass in the House in 2014 by 74-11 while a weaker bill passed in the senate. Lawmakers adjourned before holding a joint committee to reconcile the bills.
The Oklahoma Senate has until April 6 to pass a bill.
This is true. Having worked there several times I can definitely attest to that. Lots of hassles at locations as well, even very purely public places. It is not an easy state to work petitions in by any means.
It also gets extremely hot in Oklahoma, and surprisingly cold as well for a state that is pretty far south. Oklahoma does not have much nice weather.
Even for NYC, 3.9 million is a pretty big block 🙂
But the point is that signatures are harder to get in Oklahoma, because locations.
Paul–
I think there may be more people on my block than the entire state of Oklahoma.
True, although Oklahoma doesn’t have nearly the busy public street locations of NYC and environs.
Scott–
Of course your proposal would be better, but this is still a tremendous improvement (if passed by the Senate) in a state in which the LP has been conspicuously absent from the ballot for the last 15 years.
My state gets 25-30,000 sigs for LP candidates every two years. 8000 valid (figure 12,000 raw) is a piece of cake compared to the current numbers.
The new signature requirement if it passes is certainly manageable, and would leave Alabama as the undisputed worst in signature percentage required as well as retention percentage required for statewide races; Georgia, which has fairly reasonable retention (once you are on) for statewide would still be the absolute worst for local and district races. Of course it would be better if we can improve retention in OK as well, but just improving the signature requirement would be a big step by itself.
“Kevin Knedler March 11, 2015 at 9:06 pm
what are vote test thresholds to retain access in OK? Do they have a four year cycle in the law?”
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
The requirement for retaining ballot access in OK is 10% for Governor or President. The Presidential election is in 2016, Governor is in 2018. I **think** ballot access lasts for 4 years, but it might only be two years.
I would much rather have had the vote test reduced to 5% for any statewide office, and have the access last for 4 years, than just have the signature requirement reduced. But there is always next year…
I’m cautiously optimistic on this one.
what are vote test thresholds to retain access in OK? Do they have a four year cycle in the law? Great news.
Excellent development. I hope their State Senate will also pass it.
Very good news.
OK could go from one of the worst states to one of the more moderate for ballot access.