Oklahoma’s legalization initiative at risk due to government delay

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Oklahoma clock.

Organizers of an attempt to put recreational marijuana in front of Oklahoma voters were told Monday they have enough signatures and are asking the state Supreme Court to ensure the state issue gets placed on the November ballot.

But the Yes to 820 campaign faces several obstacles on the latter part of its path to voting, as another challenge period will last at least 10 business days and the state elections agency needs time to print ballots for overseas voters.

Using a private provider for the first time, the Secretary of State said Monday that more than 117,000 signatures submitted by the Yes to the State Question 820 campaign were valid. That’s more than the 94,911 needed to vote. Organizers submitted more than 164,000 signatures on July 5.

The Secretary of State’s certification now goes to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which must determine whether the signature verification meets the sufficiency requirements. This begins a 10-day process in which anyone can contest the signature verification.

“The last petition Oklahomans voted on took 17 days to tally 313,000 signatures,” Tilley said in a press release. “By contrast, we submitted half that amount and it took three times as long. This delay means the Elections Board may not get the green light to print the ballot in time for voters to vote on it in November.”

The governor has sole authority to call the ballot initiative election once the appeal period has expired. For practical reasons, that means the process must be completed by Friday, the state election committee told Gov. Kevin Stitt in a June 22 letter. The statutory deadline is August 29, and it applies because the electoral commission needs to have time to print and mail mail-in ballots to foreign voters such as the military.

In a filing with the state Supreme Court, the Yes to 820 campaign said the state’s new signature verification system, operated by Western Petition Systems, took longer than anyone expected.

Jeffrey Cartmell, an attorney with the Secretary of State’s office, said the new screening process counts registered voters for the first time.

“This new process differs significantly from the historical practice of merely counting the number of people who signed the petition without regard to their voter registration status,” Cartmell said in a statement. “Our office has been in constant communication with the advocates and we look forward to working with them and other interested parties to further improve this new process.”

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In its court filings, the campaign said the August 26 date identified by the state election board was only an “artificial ‘convenient’ deadline; it is not required by law.”

“And where, as here, the electoral board has a clear statutory duty to put an issue up for a vote in the ‘next federal election,’ claims of inconvenience or cost are no excuse for non-compliance — particularly when, as here, the time constraints that the inconvenience and expense is caused by the government itself.”

The filing said the election committee changed its own informal deadline for printing ballots this year after Oklahoma District Attorney nominee Kevin Calvey asked for a handwritten recount in the June 28 Republican primary. That recount was not completed until July 13, a month after a previously announced ballot printing deadline. Calvey faces Gayland Gieger in Tuesday’s runoff.

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MP Andy Fugate, D-Del City, said he wanted the Stitt government to move quickly to bring the issue to the November election, which will see the largest turnout of the year.

“Oklahoma law sets demanding deadlines for collecting signatures on ballot initiatives,” Fugate said. “Unfortunately, similar deadlines are lacking for the Secretary of State to validate these signatures. This process has already taken longer than other current initiatives on the state question.”

Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.orgis a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to public policy issues facing the state.

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Paul Monie

Paul Monies has been a reporter at Oklahoma Watch since 2017, covering state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.

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