Should Oklahoma's statewide elections use open primaries? That's what State Question 836 wants to ask Oklahoma voters. Volunteers started collecting signatures on the initiative petition on Wednesday. If they collect 172,993 signatures by Jan. 26, the question can appear on next year's general election ballot.
In the open primary system State Question 836 proposes, any registered voter could vote for any candidate, regardless of party. The two candidates who received the most votes would move on to the general election, also regardless of party.
Advocates say this makes Oklahoma's elections fairer, especially for people who aren't registered as Republicans.
"Right now we have thousands of voters, specifically Independents, who in a lot of cases are locked out of some of the most important primary elections in the state just because of the letter by their name," said Caedmon Brooks.
Brooks is a project coordinator with Oklahoma United, a nonprofit that helped launch the petition. He said it's important for everyone to have a meaningful say in primaries because everybody pays for those elections.
State Question 836 held launch events in Oklahoma City and Tulsa on Wednesday to mark the first of 90 days they have to collect signatures. AJ Griffin, a Republican former state senator, spoke at the OKC gathering.
Griffin said the Republican Party's closed primaries often determine the candidate who will ultimately win the general election.
"The general elections across the state of Oklahoma are almost inconsequential in most elections," Griffin said.
After a few words from Griffin, volunteers clutching clipboards approached pedestrians braving downtown OKC's sidewalks on a windy morning.
People against the state question were out too, shadowing signature gatherers with signs saying "DECLINE TO SIGN." Jim Putnam was among them.
"I sincerely hope that this doesn't come to a vote because we have a lot of folks who are low information voters," Putnam said. "They throw the word 'fairness' in front of them, they're going to go, 'Yeah, I'm all for fairness.' This is nothing about being fair."
Other anti-836 advocates carried signs reading "DON'T CALIFORNIA MY OKLAHOMA." Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles McCall also invoked California's primary system to condemn State Question 836.
"It's straight out of California's liberal playbook," McCall said in a social media post. "If passed, it would shut conservative voices out of the process and flood our elections with outside influence."
It's also been condemned by McCall's fellow Republicans. The state's Republican Party unsuccessfully sued to try to stop it, and his primary opponent, Gentner Drummond, has condemned the question.
California is among five states that have a single open primary ballot for multiple parties. The other four states with similar systems are politically varied: Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington.
Fifteen other states have open primaries where voters can choose one party's primary ballot to vote on, regardless of the voter's party affiliation. And eight more have primaries that allow unaffiliated or independent voters to choose a primary in which to vote.
Brooks said the system proposed by State Question 836 shouldn't feel foreign to Oklahoma voters.
"We already have a system almost exactly like this on a local level," he said. "If you go vote for your mayor's race, everyone's already on one ballot. The only difference between our system and the system that's in place locally now is we will show the candidates' party affiliation."
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
