You can tell a lot about a proposed state question just by looking at who’s lining up for and against it.
So it is with SQ 836 – the “open primaries” initiative that last month began seeking the 173,993 signatures necessary to get the proposed constitutional amendment on an upcoming statewide ballot.
As you might suspect, the hard-right ideologues controlling Oklahoma’s Republican Party these days are apoplectic about it. They like things just as they are: R’s holding all statewide elective offices, all congressional delegation members and supermajorities in both houses of the state Legislature.
For them, change is … scary. Unpredictable. They could lose elections. Power. C-o-n-t-r-o-l. Why fix something that’s [in their view] not broken?
In reality, the system is broken. Voter apathy is spreading, undoubtedly fueled by the sense their elected representatives aren’t working for them, but rather for well-heeled special interests. If voter turnout tops 50% in anything other than a presidential or gubernatorial race, it’s worthy of a Thunder NBA title victory parade.
It’s actually worse than that. Those mediocre turnouts reflect the participation of only about one-quarter of voting-age-eligible Oklahomans. While barely half bother to register bother to vote, hundreds of thousands more don’t even bother to register to have a chance to vote.
Enter Oklahoma United, the non-partisan group promoting SQ 836 which, if approved by voters, would place all candidates – regardless of party – on the primary ballot. The top two vote-getters – regardless of party – would then advance to the general election ballot.
Republican heavyweights like pollster Pat McFerron are involved or are supporting the initiative petition drive. So are Democrats like Del City Rep. Andy Fugate and progressive activists like Let’s Fix This’ Andy Moore.
The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs helps lead the social media blitz against it, promoting a website, declinetosignok.com, and featuring a dire warning from junior U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin: “This is nothing but a liberal attempt to weaken Oklahoma’s conservative voices.”
Such dire rhetoric – echoed by 2nd District U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen – would likely come as a shock to our friends in Republican-dominated Texas.
After all, they’ve been casting ballots for years in an open-primaries-esque system in which voters do not register as Republican, Democrat, independent or otherwise. Instead, each election year, they can choose the primary in which they wish to vote. Once they do, they’re stuck with their choice for the election cycle – they can’t cross over to vote in a different party’s runoff.
What hath that wrought? Republican control of the statehouse, the state’s congressional delegation and both U.S. Senate seats. Moreover, no Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994.
Letting people choose in Texas … has let people choose. They’ve mostly chosen Republican. Imagine that.
Unsurprisingly, SQ 836 opponents don’t often mention Texas. They focus instead on California, hoping to frighten Oklahomans into thinking wild-eyed California liberalism – warning, warning: Nancy Pelosi! Gavin Newsom! – will take over the Sooner state and do … what? Something about Oklahoma’s No. 50 ranking in education? Make sure that one in four Oklahoma kids no longer goes to bed hungry?
It’s true Democrats picked up California statehouse seats after voters approved open primaries in 2010, now holding supermajorities in the Assembly and Senate and all statewide offices. How is that different from Texas and its more open primary system?
SQ 836 backers believe open primaries would encourage disaffected voters to participate again … which could help yield more centrist candidates … which could create better legislative outcomes for workaday Oklahomans.
Who knows if it would work as they hope? But this much is certain: the current hyper-partisan process hasn’t yielded a better Oklahoma. It’s made things worse.
