Just over half of Oklahomans voted in the presidential election trailing only Hawaii for the lowest voter turnout nationwide. Oklahoma United wants to amend the state constitution opening state primaries to everyone.
Many independent voters behind this petition said they feel they don’t have a say in their community until it’s too late.
They want their government to represent everyone, and they said Oklahoma has to change its tune.
“We are all here today to support improving our democracy,” A.J. Griffin, chief executive officer of the Potts Family Foundation.
Oklahoma United filed a petition on behalf of several independent voters. U.S. Coast Guard veteran Anthony Stobbe said he feels left out in primary elections.
“Over half of military service members don’t affiliate with a political party,” Stobbe said. “The current system we have in place says to me that your political opinions don’t matter.”
Oklahoma Republicans only allow registered GOP voters to vote in their primaries. News 9 Political Analyst Scott Mitchell said closed primaries silence diverse voices.
“The numbers are down,” said Mitchell, referring to Oklahoma’s chronically low voter turnout. “If you’ve got a small minority deciding all of the issues, that’s not a healthy democracy.”
The spokesperson for the Vote Yes 835 campaign Alex Weintz said politicians don’t have to work for people’s vote.
“We’ve made these November races all but meaningless,” Weintz said. “A Democrat in a heavily Democratic area or a Republican in a heavily Republican area is just cruising to victory.”
Gov. Kevin Stitt posted to X saying, “Open primaries are a hard no in Oklahoma.”
Lt Gov. Matt Pinnell said in a statement:
“At best, the push to mandate open primaries is a solution in search of a problem, and at worst, it is a thinly veiled attempt to weaken Republican voters in choosing the nominees to represent our Party. As a former Republican state party chairman and State Party Director at the RNC, I would hope the current primary structure would incentivize independents and conservative Democrats to register as Republicans and help choose our party’s nominees.”
Mitchell said most state Republicans will oppose the idea of open primaries because the current rules overwhelmingly benefit GOP candidates.
“They’re doing just fine with the results,” said Mitchell, regarding the legislature’s GOP supermajority.
However, Stobbe believes democracy is at stake, and he said it’s time for Oklahomans to face the music.
“It’s time to fix this,” Stobbe said. “It shifts the decision about who will represent the people closer to all of the people.”
Oklahoma United submitted the initial petition to the secretary of state.
Once approved they have 90 days to gather nearly 173,000 signatures and get them certified to get the question on the ballot.
Advocates for this measure hope to get the question on the table for the November general election in 2026.
