Today, both the House and the Senate signed off on the final version of HB2181 and it now goes to the desk of Governor Fallin for a final signature and into law. If she signs this bill into law, she will be making an unprecedented move in Oklahoma since 1974. Like we said in our last post, this will be the first time since that year that the Oklahoma government has voluntarily eased ballot access.
If this bill is signed by Governor Fallin, that would mean that new parties in Oklahoma would need only 24,745 valid signatures to gain recognition for the 2016 elections rather than 41,242 signatures. This could mean that Oklahoma will break its losing streak of having only 2 candidates and parties on the ballot for President. While this is a considerable step, the signature requirement is still much higher than the requirements of the surrounding states and considerably higher than the 5,000 signatures we have been fighting for for more than 15 years.
It is not clear when Governor Fallin will sign the bill, but we don’t expect any complications at this point. We will keep you up to date on this next step in the process.
