The Sooner State Party said that it will try again after failing to secure enough signatures to become the state’s fourth recognized political party.
The group failed to get the required 35,000 signatures by a few hundred, said C.J. Webber-Neal, acting chair. The deadline to qualify the party for the upcoming election was last month.
“We won’t be able to be on the ballot for this election cycle, but we can start again on November 16,” Webber-Neal said.
The group formed in July and seeks to represent the voices of independents and more moderate Democrats and Republicans, he said.
“We’re just tired of the political system,” Webber-Neal said. “It did not seem like, given the current political climate that was here in the state of Oklahoma, that anything was really being done, and it was more fighting, either between the two parties, or even inner party fighting.”
The group’s effort to form a new political party came after no political party filed the proper paperwork to allow independents to vote in party primaries.
“We did have candidates that have reached out to us that were showing an interest in running on our party ticket,” he said.
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