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Most home rule charter municipalities in our state, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa , have a recall procedure by which citizens may remove a city elected official.
Nineteen states, including our neighbors in Kansas , Louisiana , and Colorado , have a method to recall a statewide elected official.
But while some city charters give voters the power to hold municipal officials accountable through the recall process, Oklahoma law contains no provisions that allows voters to attempt to remove state and county elected officials before their term ends.
It’s time for this to change.
McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy was recorded making comments about lynching Black people and killing journalists in March 2023. While he was defeated for reelection in the primary in June, Clardy is still in office through the end of the year. With no legal means to remove him , McCurtain County residents continue to be stuck with Clardy as their top law enforcement officer.
Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett is alleged to have groped a man at a conference of regulatory officials in June. Hiett claims no memory of the incident but has admitted to being intoxicated and having a drinking problem for which he is seeking treatment.
While he has stepped down as chair of the Corporation Commission, he is refusing to resign his position as one of the three commissioners. An investigation is underway into his conduct, but since the incident occurred out of state and there’s no report of charges being filed, it’s very likely that Hiett will stay in office until the end of his term in January 2027.
State Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters has been the subject of repeated calls for impeachment , the most recent by several prominent Republican legislators. He’s facing questions about whether he followed open records and meetings laws and whether he’s allocating public funds appropriately. He is being investigated by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT). However, Speaker Charles McCall has stated that he will not consider the impeachment request unless 51 of the 81 Republicans in the Oklahoma House join in support. In a similar situation to Hiett and Clardy, barring a conviction for a criminal act, Oklahomans can expect Walters to continue in office until the end of his term in 2027.
With each of these officials, it seems likely that an effort would be made to remove them from office through a recall, if only such a process existed that applied to state and county officials.
Would a citizen-led recall attempt in these cases be able to get on the ballot, and if so, would it then receive the support of voters to be successful? It’s impossible to say.
But it seems clear that it’s long overdue for our state lawmakers to craft and pass a legislative referendum to give citizens the ability to recall an objectionable elected official at any level of government in the state through direct democracy.
Recall is a much needed tool to make the politicians answerable to the people.
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