{"id":94864,"date":"2025-09-17T09:59:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=94864"},"modified":"2025-09-17T09:59:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:59:45","slug":"court-oks-open-primary-ballot-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2025\/09\/17\/court-oks-open-primary-ballot-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"Court OKs Open Primary Ballot Petition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 An initiative petition aiming to reform Oklahoma\u2019s election system and open primaries can begin collecting signatures following a ruling from the Oklahoma Supreme Court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state\u2019s high court on Tuesday ruled 8-0<\/a> that a challenge to State Question 836<\/a> was premature. Opponents, including the Oklahoma state Republican Party, argued in June the state question\u2019s gist was misleading and the suggested reforms would burden Oklahomans\u2019 right to associate with political parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe People\u2019s right to propose law and amendments to the Oklahoma Constitution through the initiative process is precious, and any doubt as to the legal sufficiency of an initiative petition should be resolved in its favor,\u201d Justice Douglas Combs wrote in the majority opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court found the gist was not misleading, that any challenge at this stage was premature, and does not impose any \u201csevere burden\u201d on associational rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed state question<\/a> needs almost 173,000 signatures to make it onto a future ballot. If approved, it would open primary elections to all voters. While Oklahoma primaries are currently closed, parties can choose to open them to 466,000 registered independent voters. Only Democrats currently do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Question 836 proposes allowing voters to choose one candidate for each office and the top two voter-getters advance to the general election regardless of political party. Presidential primary elections would be unaffected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony Stobbe, a proponent for the ballot measure and involved in the lawsuit, said in a statement following Tuesday\u2019s ruling that the state question is about giving every voter a voice in Oklahoma elections regardless of party affiliation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s ruling is a victory for Oklahoma voters and a defeat for the insiders and power-brokers who benefit from today\u2019s closed, exclusionary primary process,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are eager to begin collecting signatures and to take this transformative conversation directly to the people. In the next few weeks, you\u2019ll see our volunteers on street corners, in parking lots, at sporting events, and in every corner of the state, talking with everyday Oklahomans about why it\u2019s time to open our primaries and put voters first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronda Vuillemont-Smith, a former Tulsa GOP chair, who is one of the parties challenging the measure, said she wasn\u2019t surprised by the Supreme Court ruling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was kind of expected,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you challenge a case like that, you know that there\u2019s a chance, and after sitting through the hearing I really didn\u2019t think that it was going to come down in our favor. But what it did do is it did postpone their collecting of signatures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporters will need to collect signatures under a new law, Vuillemont-Smith said. Among other things, Senate Bill 1027 creates restrictions on where signatures can be gathered, which critics say will make it more difficult to qualify citizen-led measures for the ballot. Opponents filed a challenge<\/a> to the new law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oklahoma Supreme Court this week halted implementation of the law as it pertains to State Question 836, but denied a broader request to stop it from taking effect for other initiatives while legal proceedings play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vuillemont-Smith said there\u2019s a potential to challenge the state question when signatures are submitted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do look forward to following this process through and see where it goes,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s something I do not believe is good for Oklahoma.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 An initiative petition aiming to reform Oklahoma\u2019s election system and open primaries can begin collecting signatures following a ruling from the Oklahoma Supreme Court.  The state\u2019s high court on Tuesday ruled 8-0 that a challenge to State Question 836 was premature. Opponents, including the Oklahoma state Republican Party, argued in June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8368],"tags":[2939,8465],"class_list":["post-94864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oknews","tag-elections","tag-oklahoma-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}