Jonathan Small of the OCPA, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a right-leaning think tank, would have you believe the changes to the Citizen’s Petition process he advocates in SB 1027 are just about “fairness and transparency.” What it’s really about is curtailing our right to petition the government.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states “Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

In spite of this Constitutional Right, we are one of only 19 states that have protected this right in our own state constitution. We are lucky that we live in a state where the founders of our state took this provision to heart and expanded it. In our Oklahoma Constitution we have Article 5, Section V2: “The first power reserved by the people is the initiative, and eight per centum of the legal voters shall have the right to propose any legislative measure, and fifteen per centum of the legal voters shall have the right to propose amendments to the Constitution by petition, and every such petition shall include the full text of the measure so proposed. The second power is the referendum, and it may be ordered (except as to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety), either by petition signed by five per centum of the legal voters or by the Legislature as other bills are enacted. The ratio and per centum of legal voters hereinbefore stated shall be based upon the total number of votes cast at the last general election for the Office of Governor.”

To decode the legal language above, it says there are three kinds of petitions:

• Referendum petition – This is a yes or no referendum on legislation already passed. The number of signatures required is 5% of the votes cast in the last general election for governor.

• New legislation petition - It can be amended or even repealed by the legislature, as any law can be. The number of signatures required is 8% of the votes cast in the last general election for governor.

• Constitutional amendment - If passed, it becomes part of the Constitution. The legislature cannot amend or remove it except by another petition for another constitutional amendment. The number of signatures required is 15% of the votes cast in the last general election for governor.

Using this process, several initiative petitions have passed which make Oklahomans lives better: There were two petitions addressing overpopulation in our prison system. Oklahoma has the highest incarceration rate in the world, including the highest incarceration rate of women. It is known that if a father is incarcerated, the children have a 40% chance to become incarcerated at some point in their lives as well. This rate doubles if a mother is incarcerated, due to her essential role in keeping a family together. It is a situation doomed to expand recidivism. It is also too expensive for our budget.

These petitions were designed to get about 2000 people released from prison to post prison programs, a drop in the bucket, but promised to balloon to more benefits over time. These were new legislation type petitions. Due to the amendments imposed by the legislature, only about 800 people were released.

Then, there was a Constitutional Amendment type petition passed, which expanded Medicaid in the state of Oklahoma, bringing healthcare to 500,000 people who didn’t have it, and met the federal poverty guidelines.

There was another Constitutional Amendment type petition passed, which approved Medical Marijuana. It brought new treatment modalities to children suffering from rare neurological diseases, cancer victims on chemotherapy, workers injured on the job and experiencing chronic pain, people with chronic conditions like migraine or severe arthritis. It also lessened the burden on the jurisprudence system of low-level marijuana possession offenders. It also greatly increased the tax revenue of every county and district in Oklahoma, Seminole included.

The petition process is already fair and transparent. The entire title is included on every petition and shown to every potential signatory. The signers are asked if they are registered voters and informed that signing a petition is like signing an affidavit and subjects them to perjury laws if they falsely state they are registered voters and are not. Those collecting the signatures already have to document their identity when they submit the petitions. Plus the whole process is subject to auditing by the State Auditor. Nowadays, the courts are also involved and have to approve the wording of the petition.

Finally, wherever the signatories come from, every Oklahoman in all 77 counties gets the chance to vote on the petition once it becomes a State Question. There is nothing undemocratic happening here.

Now they want to insist that no more than 10% of the required signatures come from a county with a population of more than 400,000. And counties with a population less than 400,000 contribute only 4% to the count.

Here is the arithmetic of this:

• The number who voted in the last general election for Governor (2022) = 1,152,162

• 5% for a referendum = 57,608 signatures needed

• 8% for new legislation = 92,173 signatures needed

• 15% for a constitutional amendment = 172,824 signatures needed There are only two counties with populations greater than 400,000, Oklahoma and Tulsa. Hence only 20% of signatures can come from these counties. Then it would take over 5000 signers from at least 25 other counties to make any petition official. And the signatures must be collected in only 90 days! That’s a heavy lift! There is no way this is about “transparency and fairness!” It is strictly about doing away with Citizen’s Petitions altogether.

Why are they doing this? The next petitions we are likely to see will address the gridlock in our electoral system: why one party has a stranglehold on all elections, through partisan gerrymandering, and through a partisan primary system that favors the extremes of both major parties. The Moderate Middle has no voice anymore. This is why now they want to make it impossible to use the petition process.

It is time to call your representatives, starting with your state senators and demand to keep your right to petition your government for redress of grievances unabridged!