Oklahoma: Election Board decision to keep voter data private garners support | Emma Murphy/News From The States

A group of Oklahomans on Monday said they’re prepared to sue the federal government if they continue trying to push state leaders to release protected voter information. C.J. Webber-Neal, a member of Sooner State Party, said at a press conference outside the State Election Board offices that the Department of Justice does not need access to Oklahoman’s protected voter information, like Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. Continued requests for that information amount to government overreach and could disincentivize Oklahomans from participating in elections, he said. “I think that it does not even help with voter integrity because now voters are going to be concerned about voting,” Webber-Neal said. “So that’s going to cause voters maybe not to go vote because they know that the government is going to have that information and it might affect them adversely.” Read Article

Oklahoma: Textbook Publishers Reveal How They Incorporated Controversial New Standards | Jennifer Palmer/Oklahoma Watch

The state’s social studies standards, ideologically aligned with conservative values, American exceptionalism and Christianity, will guide a committee’s review of dozens of textbooks and materials for use in Oklahoma classrooms. The social studies standards call for high school students to study the 2020 elections by looking into election fraud theories such as batch dumps and mail-in balloting risks using graphs and other information. Most made little effort to embrace the controversial aspects of the new standards, an Oklahoma Watch review of submitted materials found. Some made minor adjustments. And a few refused to do business with Oklahoma altogether. Read Article

Oklahoma schools’ push to consider election denialism sparks battle | Justine McDaniel and Anumita Kaur/The Washington Post

A battle is roiling Oklahoma over new social studies standards that include teaching high-schoolers that there were “discrepancies” in the 2020 presidential election, as a legal fight unfolds over allegations that the state superintendent added the provision to the standards without notifying some education board members before they voted to pass them. An Oklahoma County judge is considering a request to block the standards from being enacted and heard arguments Wednesday in the lawsuit, which was filed against state education officials by a group of teachers and parents. Meanwhile, other parents opposed to the standards’ content are circulating opt-out forms to remove their children from the future lessons. Under the curriculum, high-schoolers would be asked to analyze debunked theories related to the 2020 vote and election security, such as “security risks” of voting by mail and “batch dumps” of ballots — references to the disproven theory circulated by President Donald Trump that he did not lose that election.

Oklahoma will teach high schoolers ‘Big Lie’ about 2020 election | Kayla Jimenez/USA Today

Oklahoma’s public school history teachers will soon be required to teach the disproved conspiracy theory that the Democratic Party stole the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump. The Republican-led state’s new high school history curriculum says students must learn how to dissect the results of the 2020 election, including learning about alleged mail-in voter fraud, “an unforeseen record number of vo

Oklahoma Proposes Teaching 2020 Election ‘Discrepancies’ in U.S. History | Sarah Mervosh/The New York Times

High school students in Oklahoma would be asked to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election as part of U.S. history classes, according to new social studies standards recently approved by the Oklahoma Board of Education. The proposed standards seem to echo President Trump’s false claims about his 2020 defeat. They ask students to examine factors such as “the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states” and “the security risks of mail-in balloting.” They now head to the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, which could take up the issue before its term ends in late May, or punt the issue to the governor’s desk. Read Article

 

Oklahoma Proposes Teaching 2020 Election ‘Discrepancies’ in U.S. History | Sarah Mervosh/The New York Times

High school students in Oklahoma would be asked to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election as part of U.S. history classes, according to new social studies standards recently approved by the Oklahoma Board of Education. The proposed standards seem to echo President Trump’s false claims about his 2020 defeat. They ask students to examine factors such as “the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states” and “the security risks of mail-in balloting.” They now head to the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, which could take up the issue before its term ends in late May, or punt the issue to the governor’s desk. Read Article

Oklahoma election secretary praises bill to prohibit threats, doxing of election workers | Chris Casteel/The Oklahoman

Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax has applauded the signing of Senate Bill 481 by Governor Kevin Stitt, which criminalizes the harassment and threats faced by election workers in the state. Ziriax, who himself has been a victim of doxing and threats, expressed gratitude to the Legislature and the governor for taking these threats seriously and enacting the legislation to deter and punish such actions. The new law establishes penalties for those who threaten, intimidate, harass, or dox election workers, aiming to ensure their safety and protect them from false claims and attacks related to election administration. Read Article

Oklahoma: Audit confirms election results | Dale Denwalt/Oklahoman

A post-election review has confirmed the results of both the primary runoff and general elections in Oklahoma. Of the 31 races, and thousands of ballots re-tabulated, election officials found only two instances where the audit figures differed slightly from the certified results. The audit included results from federal, state, judicial and county elections. In one Okmulgee County precinct, a voter apparently put their “I Voted” sticker on their ballot before feeding it into the machine on Election Day, causing their pick for corporation commissioner to not be counted. During an audit in Johnston County, officials discovered that one ballot was missing from a sealed transfer case containing Election Day ballots. After recounting the ballots from that precinct multiple times and conducting a thorough search, the ballot could not be found. “While the ballot was not recovered, there appears to be no evidence of intentional wrongdoing by the precinct officials,” states the audit report. “The most likely explanation is that the precinct officials failed to properly secure the ballot in the transfer case after the polls closed.”

Full Article: Audit confirms Oklahoma’s election results

Cherokees Ask U.S. to Make Good on a 187-Year-Old Promise, for a Start | Simon Romero/The New York Times

In 1835, U.S. officials traveled to the Cherokee Nation’s capital in Georgia to sign a treaty forcing the Cherokees off their lands in the American South, opening them to white settlers. The Treaty of New Echota sent thousands on a death march to new lands in Oklahoma. The Cherokees were forced at gunpoint to honor the treaty, which stipulated that the Nation would be entitled to a nonvoting seat in the House of Representatives. But Congress reneged on that promise. Now, amid a growing movement across Indian Country for greater representation and sovereignty, the Cherokees are pushing to seat that delegate, 187 years later. “For nearly two centuries, Congress has failed to honor that promise,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a recent interview in the Cherokee capital of Tahlequah, in eastern Oklahoma. “It’s time to insist the United States keep its word.” The Cherokees and other tribal nations have made significant gains in recent decades, plowing income from sources like casino gambling into hospitals, meat-processing plants and lobbyists in Washington. At the same time, though, those tribes are seeing new threats to their efforts to govern themselves. A U.S. Supreme Court tilting hard to the right seems ready to undermine or reverse sovereignty rulings that were considered settled, while new state laws may affect how schools teach Native American history. And tribes are embroiled in a caustic feud with Oklahoma’s Republican governor — despite his distinction as the first Cherokee citizen to lead the state — that has helped to make his re-election bid next week a tossup.

Full Article: Cherokees Ask U.S. to Make Good on a 187-Year-Old Promise, for a Start – The New York Times

Oklahoma’s first post-election audit confirms 2022 primary results | Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

The state Election Board originally planned to start conducting post-election audits during the 2020 election cycle, but the development of policies and procedures to guide the process was delayed during the pandemic. “Post-election audits add an additional layer of transparency and security to Oklahoma elections and election officials are thankful that the State Legislature enacted a law to allow them,” Ziriax said in a news release. “Oklahoma has one of the most accurate and secure voting systems in the entire world. These post-election audits and the three recounts that followed the June 28 Primary Elections are the latest in a long line of evidence of that.” Election integrity has been a hot topic at the state Capitol following the 2020 presidential election. Spurred by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud, several GOP state lawmakers have sought a forensic or independent audit of the 2020 election results. State law doesn’t allow for audits conducted by non-elections officials.

Full Article: Oklahoma’s first post-election audit confirms 2022 primary results

Oklahoma power outages won’t stop Tuesday’s election | Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

Tuesday’s election will go on as planned even if some polling places are still affected by power outages from the ice storm that rocked the Oklahoma City metro area last week. Power companies have put a priority on restoring electricity to polling locations, state officials said last week. “If any of our local election locations actually report an outage, we’re responding to it as a critical emergency,” said Mark Gower, Department of Emergency Management director. Gower said he asked OG&E and other power companies to prioritize restoring electricity to those locations. If power cannot quickly be restored to some polling places, the department is working on supplying generators in time for Election Day. OG&E’s director of Corporate Affairs, Brian Alford, said crews are planning on having power restored to all polling locations within its service area before Election Day. “We continue to coordinate with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management to make sure polling stations have power for Tuesday’s elections,” he said. “According to our most recent data, power has been restored to the vast majority of polling places within our service area — more than 96% of the approximately 800 stations.”

Full Article: Oklahoma power outages won’t stop Tuesday’s election

Oklahoma: Democratic groups challenge absentee voting laws | Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

The Oklahoma Democratic Party is suing the state Election Board over several voting procedures they say “severely burden” the right of Oklahomans to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state party and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are asking a federal judge to declare several of Oklahoma’s voting provisions unconstitutional. In the lawsuit filed this week, the groups ask a judge to block the state from enforcing the state’s notary requirement so long as absentee voters have signed their ballot affidavit. The lawsuit calls the notary requirement or the alternative requirement that voters must submit a copy of an identification card with their absentee ballot, “onerous and unnecessarily burdensome.” Oklahoma’s GOP-controlled Legislature and Gov. Kevin Stitt recently reinstated the state’s notary requirement for absentee ballots. They also added some provisions to state law that make some exceptions if Oklahoma is in a state of emergency before upcoming elections, which likely will apply to the June 30 primary.

Oklahoma: Governor signs bill to reinstate notary requirement for absentee voting | Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday signed legislation to reinstate the requirement that absentee ballots be notarized. The legislation that reverses an Oklahoma Supreme Court order from Monday that incited a fierce partisan battle in Oklahoma’s Legislature. Citing concerns that not requiring absentee ballots to be notarized would lead to voter fraud, the Republican majority in both chambers supported legislation to bring back the notary requirement, but include some exceptions while the state is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. “Oklahomans need to have confidence that our election process is secure and free from fraud,” said Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City. “This measure upholds the integrity of our absentee ballot process while also making it easier to vote absentee during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic all in an attempt to protect the health and safety of voters and election workers.”

Oklahoma: House Republicans vote to reverse court ruling on absentee ballots | Kayla Branch and Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

Mere days after the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a requirement that absentee ballots be notarized, House Republicans moved Wednesday to reverse the ruling. Despite fierce opposition from House Democrats, Republicans passed an amended bill that seeks to reinstate the notary requirement. The amendment’s author, Rep. Chris Kannady, R-Oklahoma City, said the legislation was born out of recommendations from State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax, Oklahoma’s top elections official. Senate Bill 210, which passed the House on a near-party-line vote, would require absentee ballots to be notarized, which was the procedure in place until the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered otherwise on Monday. In light of the COVID-19 crisis, Senate Bill 210 makes exceptions that would be in place for the June 30 primary election.

Oklahoma: State Supreme Court strikes notary requirement for absentee ballots | Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday struck down a requirement that absentee ballots must be notarized to be valid. An order issued Monday by Chief Justice Noma Gurich bars the Oklahoma State Election Board from issuing ballot forms or other election materials that suggest notarization is required. Instead, a statement signed, dated and declared under the penalty of perjury will suffice on absentee ballots. The order from the state’s high court requires the State Election Board to recognize the signed statements as proof that said voter did fill out their own ballot. The court’s ruling gives a win to the League of Women Voters, which sued the State Election Board over the notary requirement in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The election rights group said the notary requirement was a “substantial obstacle” that absentee voters would have to face if they chose not to cast an in-person ballot due to concerns about COVID-19. Cancer survivor Peggy Winston said she joined the lawsuit because she believed undoing the notary requirement could save lives. “This is a victory for every Oklahoma voter who wants to exercise the right to vote but not risk their lives to do so,” she said.

Oklahoma: State responds to lawsuit over absentee voting | Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

A lawsuit against the Oklahoma State Election Board seeking changes to the state’s absentee voting process in light of the COVID-19 crisis “seeks to resolve a temporary problem by inventing a permanent solution,” attorneys for the state wrote. Vice Deputy Attorney General Niki Batt and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Schneider asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court Wednesday to toss a lawsuit filed last week by the League of Women Voters. Attorneys for the state responded to the lawsuit, saying changing absentee voter requirements would upend the will of Oklahoma’s Legislature and voters, according to court documents. With their eyes on the upcoming June 30 primary, the League of Women Voters is asking the state Supreme Court to prevent the State Election Board from enforcing a state law that requires absentee ballots to be notarized. Instead, the voting rights group is asking that voters be able to include on their ballot a signed statement swearing they are qualified to vote and marked their own ballot.

Oklahoma: State increases election security efforts | Addison Kliewer/NonDoc

With the end-of-the-year deadline to pass election security measures in Congress quickly approaching, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said Oklahoma has already taken steps to secure elections from foreign interference. Lankford, who has been pushing election security to keep American democracy from foreign interference, said there is “no question” that Russia tried to meddle in the 2016 election. “We were one of the 21 states that were identified early by the FBI that the Russians tried to get into, but they couldn’t get into our system in 2016, so they moved along to others,” Lankford said. In 2017, this information was brought to the Oklahoma State Election Board, encouraging the board to partner with numerous federal and state agencies to address the issue of election security. “We met regularly to discuss risks and plan for contingencies. We arranged for unclassified briefings and security training for county election officials, and shared ‘best practices’ with state and county election employees,” said Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax in a June congressional testimony.

Oklahoma: Voter registration spike follows state Election Board deal | Associated Press

The number of people registering to vote at Oklahoma’s public service agencies has spiked in recent years, and voting rights advocates are crediting a settlement with the state Election Board. The Oklahoman reports that the 2015 settlement was reached after state and national organization threatened to sue unless the board did more to help register potential voters at public offices, as required under federal law. Those offices included the Department of Human Services, the Department of Health and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. Since then, the average number of monthly voter registrations from the agencies has tripled, from less than 500 per month to almost 1,500 per month, according to state election data.

Oklahoma: Voting rights advocate praises Oklahoma in expanding registration access | Tulsa World

Voting rights activists on Tuesday praised Oklahoma’s efforts to make registration more accessible under the National Voting Rights Act. “Oklahoma has tripled the numbers of people registering through public assistance agencies since 2015,” said Brenda Wright, senior advisor for legal strategies at Demos, a New York-based non-profit that advocates for ballot access and other causes. “The state should be commended for its impressive commitment to our shared American value that every eligible voter should be able to vote come Election Day,” Wright in a news release. “By implementing a comprehensive plan for voter registration services at these agencies across the state, Oklahoma has exemplified the NVRA’s principle and promise: States must do their part to bring all Americans into our democracy.”

Oklahoma: County officials resist efforts to expand early voting in Oklahoma | Enid News & Eagle

As the popularity of early voting continues to rise, some lawmakers are reviving a plan to make it easier for Oklahomans to vote. But they likely will run into continued resistance that has given Oklahoma the shortest in-person early-voting period among the many states that allow early voting. Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, said Senate Democrats are preparing legislation that would extend the time voters have to cast ballots through the in-person absentee option. Oklahoma currently has the shortest early voting period of the 37 states that offer early voting. State law allows voters to cast in-person absentee ballots on three days before Election Day: from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Oklahoma: Phasing in online voter registration | Norman Transcript

For the first time, many Oklahoma voters will now be able to update some of their basic voter registration information online. The first phase of online voter registration, which was operational Monday, allows Oklahomans to update their address or party affiliation online, said Paul Ziriax, election board secretary, in a statement. Voters, however, must be…

Oklahoma: With electronic voting under scrutiny, paper remains king in Oklahoma | Norman Transcript

From a national point of view, voting seems kind of scary at the moment. One story after another is surfacing about vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems. A quick internet search would likely bring up how it is possible to hack into some of them remotely, exposing Americans’ fundamental freedom to vote and leaving their political future up for grabs. But anyone who casts a ballot in Oklahoma can rest easy. Yes, it has those electronic machines that take ballots and count them digitally, but those are not the ones being talked about when it comes to hackers or vote manipulators.

Oklahoma: Photo ID law gets backing of state Supreme Court | Associated Press

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday backed a state requirement that voters provide a photo ID at the polls, the latest decision in a nationwide battle between voting rights advocates who say the laws are aimed at suppressing turnout and conservatives who say the protections are needed to prevent voter fraud. The court upheld a lower court ruling 8 to 0 with one justice recusing. “The Oklahoma Voter ID Act is a reasonable procedural regulation to ensure that voters meet identity and residency qualifications and does not cause an undue burden,” according to the 8-0 ruling, with one justice recusing, which upholds a lower court ruling in the lawsuit.

Oklahoma: Bill allowing ‘ballot selfies’ vetoed by Oklahoma governor | StateScoop

Oklahoma will not be the latest state to allow voters to take selfies with their ballots, after Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a bill this week that would’ve legalized the seemingly innocuous, but controversial practice. Fallin, a Republican, declined to sign a bill that would’ve allowed Oklahomans to take photos of their marked ballots, from either an absentee form or a voting booth, and share the images on social media. So-called “ballot selfies” have become increasingly popular over the past several election cycles, but ballot-security experts and elections officials in some states have become increasingly wary of the images’ potential to be abused.

Oklahoma: Lankford Prioritizing Cybersecurity Ahead of 2018 Elections | Public Radio Tulsa

Another round of federal elections is just months away, and Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford has a bill to guard them against foreign interference. Provisions of the Secure Elections Act would help push out paperless voting systems and encourage all states to audit their elections after they’re finished. Lankford told CNN states will still be running their elections. “But where states are not keeping up their equipment, we need to be able to encourage those states and help provide some grants to those states to say, ‘Go take care of your equipment,'” Lankford said. “We don’t want to have at the end of the next election a guess that the election had fraud in it, that they got into an election system.”

Oklahoma: Lawmaker resignations cause growing special election costs for state | News OK

With various legislator scandals and resignations, the Oklahoma State Election Board is on track to spend as much as a quarter of a million dollars on special elections this year. Eight state legislators have resigned their seats early since Dec. 31, 2016. Along with multiple resignations due to various sex and malfeasance scandals at the Oklahoma Legislature, a few lawmakers also have stepped down over the past year to take new full-time jobs. Among three special elections scheduled for Nov. 14 is one to replace Rep. David Brumbaugh, R-Broken Arrow, who died while in office.

Oklahoma: Legislature Slow to Adopt Changes to Ease Voting Laws | Oklahoma Watch

More than 60 legislative bills have been filed since 2015 that seek to expand or create new options for Oklahomans to vote or register to vote. But an Oklahoma Watch review of the legislation considered during the past three sessions shows that most didn’t even get a committee hearing. All but 10 failed to reach the governor’s desk. Among the survivors, the most potentially significant one – approved in 2015 to allow online voter registration – may not take effect for two to three more years, meaning most voters in the 2018 elections will likely encounter few changes that appreciably improve voter convenience or efficiency.

Oklahoma: As Court Challenge Continues, Oklahoma Looks to Solidify Voter ID Law | Oklahoma Watch

The ongoing fight to overturn Oklahoma’s voter identification law – a legal challenge that has spanned more than five years – could soon face a new obstacle. The state Senate passed a joint resolution this week that seeks to amend the Oklahoma Constitution with language requiring “proof of identity” to be able to vote. In practice, this would have little to no impact on the state’s existing law that requires voters to show a voter ID card or a photo ID issued by the U.S. government, Oklahoma state government or an Oklahoma tribal government. Elevating the requirement to the constitutional level would better shield it from lawsuits, including one that is now before the state Supreme Court.

Oklahoma: Bill would eliminate straight-party voting in state | Tulsa World

A state lawmaker has filed a bill that would eliminate straight party voting. Sen. J.J. Dossett, D-Owasso, is the author of Senate Bill 9. “I think it is unnecessary to have the straight-party option,” Dossett said Monday. “I think it is something that might have had value in the past when people couldn’t inform themselves on the candidate and vote.” Ten states including Oklahoma offer straight-party voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The number of states offering it has been declining in recent years, according to the NCSL. Dossett said it probably benefited Democrats when they were in power and now benefits Republicans. His filing of the measure is not related to the recent elections, Dossett said.

Oklahoma: Judge dismisses challenge to Oklahoma’s voter ID law | Tulsa World

A more than four-year legal challenge to overturn Oklahoma’s voter identification law was rejected this week by a state district court judge, who upheld the constitutionality of the measure. Oklahoma County District Court Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons dismissed the case Monday after hearing arguments from lawyers representing the Oklahoma State Election Board and Tulsa resident Delilah Christine Gentges. Gentges’ attorney said he plans to appeal the decision. Gentges sued after 74 percent of voters approved a state question in 2010 that requires every voter, before casting a ballot, to show proof of identity issued by the U.S. government, Oklahoma state government or an Oklahoma tribal government. Like in many other states that have passed similar laws, voter-rights advocates here argued the requirement is unconstitutional because it interferes with residents’ right to vote.