By Courtney Bell, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Turnout in Tuesday’s primary election was down after just over 26% of voters cast ballots, state records show.
In all, slightly fewer than 630,100 Oklahoma voters cast ballots for State Question 832, the only statewide measure in Tuesday’s election open to all registered voters, election records show.
That’s compared to just over 892,750 people who weighed in on the 2018 nonpartisan state question that legalized medical marijuana. That primary election saw a 43.6% voter turnout. At the time, there were just over 373,350 fewer registered voters.
That contest is also most comparable to Tuesday’s in that it also marked the last gubernatorial contest where there wasn’t an incumbent, said Misha Mohr, a spokesperson for the State Election Board.
Tuesday’s turnout was also down compared to the June 2020 election, the most recent time when a state question has appeared on a primary ballot. That ballot featured a citizen-led question to expand Medicaid. That year just under 674,600 votes were cast, records show, marking a 31.7% voter turnout.
This week’s election marked the first in about a decade where independents could not vote in any partisan contests. Democrats have traditionally opened their closed primaries to independents, but no party opted to do so this year.
The State Election Board will not have a partisan participation breakdown of voters for around three weeks, Mohr said.
Just over half of Oklahoma’s 2.4 million voters are registered Republicans, a quarter are Democrats and a fifth are independents, according to data from the State Election Board at the end of last month. Almost 1% of the state’s voters are Libertarians.
