Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signs ballot access bill
Gov. Mary Fallin has signed a bill designed to make it easier for third parties to get on the ballot in Oklahoma.
by Randy Ellis Published: May 14, 2015
Gov. Mary Fallin has signed a bill designed to make it easier for third parties to get on the ballot in Oklahoma.
The new law, signed Tuesday, will reduce the number of signatures required to get a third party on the ballot to at least 3 percent of the total votes cast in the last general election for governor.
Currently 24,745 signatures would be required since 824,831 votes were cast for governor in Oklahoma in 2014.
Previous law
Before the new law, the number of signatures required to get a party’s name on the ballot was at least 5 percent of the total votes cast in the last general election for either governor or president.
That was particularly difficult following presidential election years, which typically have higher voter turnouts.
Following the 2012 presidential election year, 66,744 signatures would have been required in Oklahoma. Following the 2014 gubernatorial election year, 41,242 signatures would have been required.
House Speaker Jeff Hickman was one of the House authors of the House Bill 2181.
“Today marks an important milestone in Oklahoma history — a day in which the state Legislature and governor not only acknowledged the harmful nature of Oklahoma’s ballot access laws, but also made an effort to ease that burden,” the Libertarian Party said in a prepared statement.
The Green Party released a statement saying the new law “opens up the possibility for progress towards greater political representation and participation.”
The Green Party said it plans to continue to work to get the number of required signatures reduced further to 5,000.
The new law will become effective Nov. 1.
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