Skip to main content

Oklahoma Elections: For Insiders Only?


When is election day? Most people probably assume it’s the first Tuesday in November. That makes sense, since that’s the date for statewide elections, and, in even numbered years, federal elections as well. Would it surprise you to learn that there is an election scheduled in Oklahoma every single month in 2019? That is not to say that every district has an election every month. That would be a hassle - the well-engaged citizen would have to make it to his local precinct every 4 weeks to make sure his views are adequately expressed. The slipshod way local elections are scheduled is far more shocking and less predictable than that.

One would be forgiven for thinking, on first glance, that Oklahoma allows government bodies to change lawmakers and raise taxes through oddly scheduled, poorly noticed elections on (almost) whichever Tuesday they want. However, in reality there are “only” 15 days per year when local elections can be scheduled. Still, this means that the party in power gets to set the date of their election. School boards and local governments can set elections in any month they choose. This could be a Tuesday in July when people are on vacation, or in December when the rush of the holidays is upon us. In either case, voter turnout is likely to be low. A few stalwart supporters could easily carry any vote to approval. The rest of the citizens impacted by the vote may be completely unaware of its timing or even of its existence. It is left to the county election board to determine how to let voters in their district know about the times and dates of elections. 

This is no way to run a democracy. Majority rule and the consent of the governed are the touchstones of the American way of life. Only through the due process of scheduling reasonable elections at well-noticed times can the citizens of Oklahoma be truly be heard and represented. Scheduling elections for a date when no one expects it – so that only those voters who work in, or are somehow connected to, the local government remember to vote – is, at best, undemocratic and, at worst, a sham. 

The right to vote carries responsibilities to be sure - being informed on the basic issues and candidates should be a prerequisite for anyone casting a vote. But it should not be difficult for a reasonably informed citizen to know when it’s time to vote. Oklahoma should put procedures in place to ensure that people know when votes will happen, and that there are not a burdensome number of voting days in a year. Any ballot measure should have to happen concurrently with the statewide primary. Or, if the need is sufficiently urgent, on the date of the statewide primary. 

In a perfect world, there would be only two election dates each year: the primary and the general. However, There may be some real logistical reasons that school board and other local elections can’t happen on the date of the statewide elections - congressional districts do not always follow the same lines as school districts or county offices. Therefore, voters might be required to go to multiple polling places on the same day. As this would also be burdensome, the smart solution is for the state to intervene and ensure that, at a minimum, all school board elections occur on the same day across the state. Likewise, all county elections should occur on the same day statewide, as well as all municipal elections. Any ballot measure impacting such a district should also occur on the same day as elections for those officials. Furthermore, all Oklahoma elections should require actual notice, such as mailers to every household for each and every election scheduled. This would ensure that election dates are not burdensome to the average voter, that all citizens are aware of the elections which could affect their household, and that the citizens’ will is made law, not the government’s. It would also be somewhat expensive - this is a feature, not a bug. The cost would encourage localities and school boards to work together to hold elections on the same day, or better yet, find a way to hold them on the days of the statewide primary and general elections.

Voter turnout is not something the state can or should control. Decisions are made by those who show up. But there should be a real effort to ensure that elections are publicized enough that those who care to show up, can.  

By Mike R. Davis, 1889 Institute Research Fellow
Send comments to mdavis@1889institute.org 


Popular posts from this blog

America’s Public Schools Fail Black Children, School Choice Empowers Them to Overcome

A consistent feature of racists through history is that they have fully understood the power of education, or the lack of education, as a tool of oppression. Extraordinary efforts were taken to keep black slaves illiterate, including killing those who deigned to learn to read. After the Civil War, black schools were frequent targets of attack. It should be no surprise that the longest and hardest fight in the Jim Crow South was over public school segregation. Segregationists worked to keep African Americans from lunch counters and in the back of city buses, but they fought like hell to keep black kids out of white schools. As our nation convulses with discussions of systemic racism, nearly all of the focus has been on questions of policing and the use of force. This is appropriate, of course. But I’d like to highlight a less discussed institution for which a strong case can be made that systemic racism prevails: public education.   An accepted definition of “systemic” or “structu...
Read more

Is Effective Education Reform Even Possible? The Answer is “Yes.”

Education Reform. Every time a legislature meets in this country, education reform is a topic of discussion. It’s easy to see why. Our schools, especially when you consider the amount of money we spend, don’t do a very good job. It’s really not that hard to casually look around the internet and find that the U.S. ranks in the top five of all nations, year after year, in average per-student spending in public education. Unfortunately, that does not translate into results . Many nations that spend a fraction of what we do outperform us in international academic comparisons . China’s students outperform ours by four grade levels. Oklahoma’s performance is below the national average. Anybody who knows one or more active public school teachers also knows that most of them work hard. Yes, they get longer holidays than most, and there are those relatively few who do the minimum, but there are the many who are conscientious. The problem is, they are swimming upstream in an institut...
Read more

The Bravery of Those Who Died to Defend Us Highlights Our Cowardice

Memorial Day commemorates those who died in military service to our country. These people died not for a chunk of land, for the natural resources available on that chunk of land, nor for any such simple material possession. They died for an idea, a way of life, as well as for each other. We used to be the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave. Now we're the land of the lockdown and the home of the trepidatious.   The bravery of heroes past has been replaced by dirty looks for those who dare to go outside without a mask - even in their own cars – where mask wearing, at best, can only be justified as a sign of solidarity . But solidarity for what? Certainly not freedom. That solidarity happens when people stand shoulder to shoulder against the jackboots who would take someone to jail for what now appears to be the shocking desire to earn a living to feed a family. What follows are three stories of heroism, and four contrasting acts of cowardice. May the deeds of the...
Read more

COVID-19 Exposes TSET’s Uselessness: Let’s Get Rid of It

After more than a month of COVID-19 house arrest , Oklahoma is reopening. However, the government-created economic disaster that shutdown orders have caused will be studied by epidemiologists, economists, and other social scientists for decades to come. In the meantime, we have to deal with the consequences as they occur, everything from a lack of toilet paper on store shelves (hopefully, that’s over) and hair that’s grown too long to what will undoubtedly be a host of bankruptcies. In the meantime, there is a timely question that truly ought to be answered in Oklahoma. Where has TSET (Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust) been in this time of crisis? Recall that TSET was created as a quasi-independent government by constitutional amendment as part of the 46-state tobacco settlement wherein tobacco companies agreed to pay states as reimbursement for the Medicaid costs of treating tobacco users for tobacco-induced illnesses. Instead of using the money to reduce taxes for Oklahom...
Read more