A former Oklahoma County Election Board member has filed a federal lawsuit against the Oklahoma State Election Board, alleging the state agency violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech and that she was wrongfully terminated from the board.
In the complaint, Jenni White, of Oklahoma City, alleged she was removed because she uploaded to her website a formal complaint directed to state Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax about improprieties and potential illegalities involving the canvassing and counting of absentee ballots. She also discussed the issues on a public podcast, the complaint said. When she found out some of her information was incorrect, she said she made the corrections immediately.
The suit was filed June 19 and names Ziriax and state Election Board members Heather Cline, Tim Mauldin and Mignon Lambley as defendants. The state board has not yet filed a response and directed comment to the attorney general's office, which did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Election procedures were not compliant with Oklahoma law, complaint says
In 2023, Cheryl Williams was appointed as a Republican member to the Oklahoma County Election Board, and White was appointed as her alternative.
Over a few meetings and during the Sept. 12 and Oct. 10 special elections, White said election procedures “did not appear to comport” to Oklahoma election law and the administrative code because board members only viewed ballot counts through closed-circuit TV monitor and were not able to see the entire room, the movement of the ballots and the camera did not clearly show the count on the machines, according to the complaint. She said that conflicted with the training she received.
White said she shared that information in a meeting with the Oklahoma County Republican Party and several state representatives. On or about Jan. 7, 2024, she published a formal complaint to Ziriax regarding what she saw on her website.
Ziriax wrote back to White and Williams in a Jan. 10 letter saying he reviewed their “similarly-worded complaints.” He said the use of closed-circuit TV was approved by the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office, and if they had questions, they should contact the assistant district attorney assigned as the legal counsel to the county election board. He also mentioned a Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) report that found no violations with the video system.
Ziriax said both of their complaints used the words “illegal” and “fraudulent” to describe the alleged procedural issues. He wrote, “… there is no evidence provided that illegality or fraud has occurred in the matters raised in your complaints. … Additionally, even if the claims made in your complaints were entirely true, there is nothing that casts doubt upon the accuracy or validity of the elections in question.”
However, White again raised the issues on a podcast on Jan 24.
She and Williams were dismissed at a board meeting on Jan. 31.
According to meeting minutes White was "removed due to a failure to faithfully perform her duties prescribed by law, purposefully or recklessly disseminating false information about Oklahoma’s election system and procedures, failure to immediately remove false information from the public domain, lack of respectfulness and professionalism in written communication with County Election Board staff, failure to bring forward alleged concerns in a timely manner and for behavior unbecoming of an Oklahoma election official."
The board also referred the matter to the attorney general's office and the Oklahoma County district Attorney’s office for review and possible investigation, according to meeting minutes. White said no action had been taken.
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