New laws will make ballot initiative process more restrictive, lawmaker says

Mickey Dollens said he tried to warn people.

The state representative who spent the 2024 legislative session fighting to protect Oklahoma’s initiative and referendum process said new laws passed this year will make it more difficult to get future state questions in front of the voters.

Dollens, an Oklahoma City Democrat, said House Bill 1105 — signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in late April — was the main vehicle for “stalling most ballot initiatives going forward.” The bill extends the challenge period for a state question proposal from 10 days to 90 days.

“It’s going to have an immediate impact on State Question 832,” Dollens said. That state question would gradually increase the minimum wage. And though supporters of the proposal have until July 14 to collect signatures, Dollens said opponents can file challenges to the question until Oct. 12.

“Doing that would keep the state question off the November ballot,” he said.

The bill, which passed by large margins in both the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the state Senate, was one of several pieces of legislation that would make major changes to Oklahoma’s initiative petition process.

State Sen. Julie Daniels, a Republican from Bartlesville, was the author of the bill. Emails sent to Daniels requesting comment were not answered.

A second bill, this one written by state Sen. Lonnie Paxton, made petition signature verification more difficult. The existing law required signatures on initiative petitions to come with at least three out of five data points that can be matched to the signer’s voter registration card for the signature to count. Those points included legal first name, legal last name, zip code, house number, and numerical month and day of birth.

Paxton’s bill, signed by Gov. Stitt in late April, increased the requirement up to four data points. It also allowed the secretary of state to charge a filing fee of up to $750.

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Oklahoma has a long, storied past with initiative petitions

Part of the first state constitutional convention, Oklahoma’s Initiative and Referendum process is more than 100 years old and very well used.

Modeled after an Oregon law, Oklahoma's initiative and referendum clause has sparked more than 800 initiative petitions since statehood. Many of those state questions were referred to voters through the Legislature, while others sprouted from the general public.

The process is pretty straightforward: supporters circulate a petition that spells out the state question and if the required number of signatures are collected — 15% of the legal, registered voters to amend the Constitution and 8% to propose a state law ― then the question is sent for a public vote.

Records show that since statehood, Oklahomans have cast ballots on more than 400 state questions.

The process works and it's secure, Cole Allen, an analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute, wrote in a posting on the organization's website.

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"The initiative petition process is a key part of Oklahoma’s democracy and should remain accessible to all Oklahomans. The framers of the Oklahoma constitution understood the importance of this when they called the initiative 'the first power reserved to the people' in Article 5 ," Allen wrote. "The state constitution ensures that the people have an avenue through which they can create, approve, and revoke statutory and constitutional changes directly, without the interference of the Legislature. This works to both balance and compliment the powers of the Legislature and other branches of Oklahoma’s government."

Bob Burke, a long-time attorney in Oklahoma City and an expert on the state's Constitution, said he was against lengthening the protest period and said it would have a negative effect on future petitions.

"I believe it will adversely affect the right of the people to petition their government for a statewide election on a certain issue. The law, in my opinion, is an attempt to cut down on the number of initiative petitions on issues that end up on the ballot," he said. "The delegates to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention were greatly concerned about the intrusion of government into their lives. They also wanted the people to have a major opportunity to petition the government to amend the state Constitution. Oklahoma is in a unique position that a vote of the people can even veto a bill that is passed by the Legislature."

Like Dollens, Burke said he was concerned that by increasing requirements for state questions, lawmakers are limiting the opportunity for Oklahomans to have an impact on state government.

"What is wrong with allowing our citizens to seek an opportunity for all citizens in the state to vote yay or nay against issues that affect our lives? That is a fundamental right in our democracy," Burke said.

Dollens: Fight to protect initiative and referendum process never ends

While the tweaks to the state's initiative and referendum process seem small, Dollens said, the changes made by lawmakers this year will have serious, long-term effects on Oklahoma's ballot initiative process.

Dollens said the Republican-controlled Legislature wants to restrict the ballot initiative process because they fear voters will embrace issues that the GOP opposes.

"My goal is to equip Oklahomans with the knowledge of how these legislative tactics are chipping away at voters' freedoms," Dollens said. "But ultimately it has to come down to the people of Okahoma holding lawmakers accountable as the votes on future restrictions come up in the future."

It's pretty alarming, Dollens said, how quickly lawmakers have embraced new restrictions on the ballot initiative process.

"The people need to know just how the Legislature has taken what is already one of the most restrictive ballot initiative systems in the country and made it even more restrictive," Dollens said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New laws will make ballot initiative process more restrictive, lawmaker says