Big Election Coming Up: Oklahoma cleans up their voter rolls
Big Election Coming Up: Oklahoma cleans up their voter rolls
453,000 voter registrations were purged from Oklahoma's voter rolls - Are YOU registered to vote? Last day is October 11th.
We’ve got a big election coming up - and I’m not just talking about the national election. We have several really important local AND state races that you need to be informed about, so if you aren’t registered, the deadline to register for the Nov. 5th election is October 11th. If you need to register, you can do so in the Oklahoma Voter Portal.
Over the next four weeks, I will research and write several substacks on specific local and state races since there are many of you who vote early absentee. Get ready for election updates, woven into the seemingly endless saga of sheer absurdity coming from the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority!
One nugget of epic proportions that we recently learned about through a completed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is the OTA’s contention that they don’t need a 404 permit (US Army Corps of Engineers flooding permit) to cross the South Canadian River on their east-west connector because they have “determined that they can build the new river crossing without any work within the OHWM [Ordinary High Water Mark] of the channel.”
You know… the proposed 7,000 foot long bridge; the LONGEST bridge in Oklahoma history. The bridge that has many sets of piers spread 130’ to 230’ apart across the 1.5 mile wide South Canadian River Corridor containing a river channel that periodically FLOODS and meanders. How is drilling multiple large pier foundations not dredging soil into the river channel and not changing the river dynamics downstream? The channel will not stay in the same 230 feet of the corridor in perpetuity, conveniently flowing between two bridge foundations.
So … will the USACE force an environmental assessment for a 404 permit and push the application to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) to issue a water quality permit, or just rubber stamp their design and say “build whatever you want?”
I know you can’t wait until I spill the gory details on that one.
But back to elections. The races/Judge retentions/state questions I intend to cover in detail are:
State Representative District 45: Annie Menz (D), Matt Watson (R) and Robert Murphy (Lib)
Senate District 15: Lisa Standridge (R), Elizabeth Foreman (D)
County Court Clerk: Marilyn Williams (R), Lisa Meyer (I)
Supreme Court Justices: District 3, District 4, District 5. DO NOT RETAIN ANY OF THEM - VOTE NO (that was easy, right?)
State Question #833: VOTE NO (again, easy)
State Question #834: VOTE YES (easy)
What other races/retentions are you interested in knowing about?
Oklahoma is doing all it can to ensure election integrity and voter list maintenance over the past 3 years has led to purging 453,000 Oklahoma voter registrations from the state voter rolls. Some of the registrations purged were deceased individuals, some were folks who moved out of state, but 194,962 were registrations deemed “inactive.”
Here is the breakdown of voters purged from the rolls since 2021, as provided by the Governor’s office:
A voter can be deemed inactive for not voting in two general election cycles, which would span a consecutive four year period. According to state statute (Title 26, Section 4-120.2) voter roll purges happen in Oklahoma every other summer.
Voter registration information by county and month can be found here. As of August 31, 2024, the three most populous counties in Oklahoma had the following breakdown of voter registrations.
Potential voters wondering if they were one of the purged registrations can check their registration status in the Oklahoma Voter Portal.
As we head into the throes of the general election season, please do your research and vote for the PERSON, not the PARTY. Please do NOT utilize our “straight-party-voting” option. There are some great independent and libertarian candidates on the ballot that you should seriously consider.
The two-party system has failed. Our government is in disarray. We need honest, hard-working individuals to represent the will of the people with integrity.