TRANSCRIPT
Dick Pryor: This is Capitol Insider – taking you inside politics, policy, and government in Oklahoma. I’m Dick Pryor with Quorum Call publisher Shawn Ashley. And our guest is State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax. Welcome, Paul.
Paul Ziriax: Thank you, Dick. I always appreciate being on with you and Shawn.
Dick Pryor: Thank you very much. Oklahoma has long had one of the most secure and reliable voting systems in the nation. Are you facing any challenges to that system this year?
Paul Ziriax: Anytime you have a big election, there are challenges that pop up. We have excellent people in place at our office at the State Election Board, at the county level, the precinct level. Everybody's trained, we've got our supplies, we've got our ballots printed. I think everybody's ready to go. And other than the normal routine things that are going on ahead of the election, there's not anything really too surprising so far.
Shawn Ashley: With the general election a little more than a week away, how many people are registered to vote in Oklahoma, and how is that divided up among the parties?
Paul Ziriax: Well, we will have official pre-election voter registration statistics available November 1st, but the most recent ones we have were for the end of September. Now, this will grow because we had our voter registration deadline earlier this month. But as of September 30th, there were almost 2.45 million registered voters in the state of Oklahoma. Around 53% were Republicans, a little more than 25% Democrats. Independents were a little over 20%, and those Libertarians are getting ever closer. They are 0.96% of registered voters, so they've almost hit the 1% mark, which for a minor party is a big deal.
Dick Pryor: And you saw a surge on the final day of registration. Have you seen a trend in new registrations such as party identification, urban, rural, age or district?
Paul Ziriax: Well, right now, county election boards are still, in some cases, wrapping up processing a lot of the voter registration applications, so we don't have final figures that occurred after the deadline. We'll have those on November 1st. But certainly for the online voter registration system on the deadline day, October 9th, we had the largest number of the year register that day.
Now, and I'll go ahead and mention this, this has been in the news. There was a brief issue where our online voter registration system was having difficulty communicating with the Service Oklahoma system because the interface between the two, which the State Election Board doesn't own and control, went down for a couple hours. But I just want to say a big thank you to our State Election Board staff, to Service Oklahoma, to OMES, because our partners worked with us really quickly to minimize the impact on potential applicants. And I certainly regret if anyone was inconvenienced by it, but I'm very thankful for the quick action that got us back up and running.
Shawn Ashley: In one respect, voting in the general election is really already underway for those voters who requested an absentee ballot. For those who still have their absentee ballots, what do they need to do to get their ballot in and to have it counted?
Paul Ziriax: The most important thing for absentee voters is to follow the instructions. When you look at your absentee packet, there are instructions for you as the voter. There are instructions to provide to the Notary Public if you're voting a standard absentee ballot. That's the first thing - make sure you follow the instructions and complete your affidavit and ensure it's properly notarized. Or for example, if it's for a physically incapacitated voter, make sure it's properly witnessed in order to be counted. The United States Postal Service recommends if you're an absentee or mail voter, that you mail that ballot at least one week prior to the Election Day. So, in Oklahoma, those have to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day, so the Postal Service recommends that you mail that no later than this Monday.
Dick Pryor: In-person absentee voting begins Wednesday in Oklahoma and runs through Saturday the 31st. What do people need to know if they're going to vote that way?
Paul Ziriax: You know, legally, that's called in-person absentee voting, and most people colloquially call it early voting, and that's really what it is. In many cases, it seems like very similar to voting at your polling place. It's just a lot more people and a lot bigger. For the general election, there is an extra day, Wednesday, that is not available during other statewide elections. And the last day is Saturday. Those are shorter hours, eight to two. Someone was talking to me since that's Halloween is it okay to wear your costume to go vote? Hey, that sounds great. Just don't dress up like a candidate because we don't want you to get in trouble for electioneering.
Dick Pryor: Fair enough.
Shawn Ashley: There are those of us who vote on Election Day. What do Election Day voters need to do to create a voting plan?
Paul Ziriax: That is an excellent question. Every voter should have a plan to vote because you don't know what the day may bring, but you should know where your polling place is before you ever head out that day. You can look at the OK Voter Portal and find your polling place, find your sample ballot. That way you know where you're going, you know what's on the ballot, you can have an idea how you wish to vote. When you get there, just keep in mind that Oklahoma has a proof of identity law, so you have to show proof of identify. There are lots of ways to do that.
Most people are going to show their driver’s license but really it's any federal, state or tribal ID with your photo and your name and as long as it's current and valid that is typically going to meet muster. If you don't have that you're allowed by law to use your free Voter ID card that's issued to you by the county election board. If you don't have either one of those, you forgot your wallet, your purse, whatever, you can still vote by provisional ballot and signing an affidavit and as long as that ends up matching your voter registration record, that gets counted on the Friday after the election.
Dick Pryor: That's State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax. Thank you, Paul, and good luck through the rest of this election year.
Paul Ziriax: Thank you very much.
Dick Pryor: For more information, go to quorumcall.online. You can find video of Capitol Insider segments on the KGOU You Tube channel. Audio and transcripts are at kgou.org and look for Capitol Insider where you get podcasts. Until next time, with Shawn Ashley, I'm Dick Pryor.
Announcer: Midlife brings a lot of changes. Your Turn With Allison Aubrey is a new podcast to help you navigate the twists and turns. From health and relationships to creativity and purpose, we can help steer your next chapter. With Your Turn With Allison Aubrey. Find it on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
KGOU is a community-supported news organization that relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill our mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. If you appreciate this vital service – including Capitol Insider - donate online, or contact the KGOU Membership department.
KGOU is the winner of the 2025 Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Metro Radio Division “Best of Show” award.
