Voters will decide a state question on the Nov. 5 general election ballot that is intended to clarify that only U.S. citizens are qualified to vote in Oklahoma.
Supporters say State Question 834 is necessary to preserve the integrity of elections, while critics say it functionally does nothing except encourage fear-mongering with political rhetoric.
If you thought noncitizens already are ineligible to register to vote, you’re correct.
Since Oklahoma became a state, those eligible to vote must be “qualified electors,” as defined by Article 3, Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution:
Subject to such exceptions as the Legislature may prescribe, all citizens of the United States, over the age of eighteen (18) years, who are bona fide residents of this state, are qualified electors of this state.
If a simple majority of voters approve it, SQ 834 would substitute the word “all” with “only” in that the section to say: “(…) only citizens of the United States (…) are qualified electors of this state.”
Backers of SQ 834 are pushing it as a preemptive measure to strengthen the state’s ban on noncitizens voting. They say they want to head off a disturbing trend of cities across the country allowing noncitizens to vote in some elections. Sixteen cities and towns in three states and the District of Columbia allow noncitizens to vote in certain local elections. None allow it in Oklahoma.
“We’re very suspicious of Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa leadership of doing something ridiculous like this following suit of other East and West Coast communities,” said Sen. Shane Jett (R-Shawnee). “So, what we’re doing is just making sure the silliness doesn’t find its way into Oklahoma.”
Chairman of the recently formed New Oklahoma Freedom Caucus, Jett is one of dozens of Republican legislators who coauthored Senate Joint Resolution 23 this spring to put SQ 834 before voters in November.
“And so, what we want to make sure is the silliness that’s initiated by the Democratic National Party, or by the [Democratic Socialists of America] and those who seem to be supportive of this initiative, doesn’t find its way into Oklahoma,” Jett said in an interview. “Because we know there are some radicals in Oklahoma that push toward these types of things, and we want to make sure that both Republican and Democrats alike who support [SQ 834] are not supplanted by ideologues who are pushing to disrupt our system of government.”
Jett, whose wife emigrated from Brazil and became a U.S. citizen in 2007, said he also remains concerned by record levels of unauthorized entries at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Look at our porous border, allowing people to stream across our border and to be bussed or flown into cities around the United States,” he said. “That’s very alarming.”
SJR 23 passed the Legislature along partisan lines, with Democrats casting all of the votes against it. Sen. Mary Boren (D-Norman) said SQ 834 builds on anti-immigrant rhetoric that poses problems for the state.
“Piling on the anti-immigration animosity in Oklahoma is very hurtful, and it distracts those that have the most power from resolving big problems,” Boren said in an interview. “Keeping a political bias where those that have immigrated to the United States legally are demonized is a huge problem, and they’re being used as a scapegoat.”
An attorney, Boren said the one-word change in SQ 834 does nothing of substance but says plenty to immigrant communities.
“This constitutional amendment plays into that mentality and that attitude and that bias, which is very hurtful,” Boren said. “It targets those in our state who are working very, very hard to provide for the families who may be presumed to be here illegally just by how they talk, by how they look.”
‘The opportunity to decide what they want to do’
Oklahoma is one of eight states that have measures on next month’s election ballot prohibiting noncitizens from voting. Federal law requires citizenship in order to vote in congressional and presidential elections, but the law does not apply to state and local elections.
SQ 834 is supported by the group Americans for Citizen Voting, which proclaims on its website that the possibility of noncitizens voting in local elections can exist unless a state’s constitution specifies that only citizens may vote.
Term-limited Oklahoma House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols (R-OKC) said opponents are wrong when they say nothing would change if SQ 834 fails to pass.
“If it doesn’t pass, my expectation would be, there’d be a minimum of two cities and maybe more that would see that as an opportunity to go with the trend that is going on right now to allow noncitizens to vote inside municipal elections,” Echols said during a State Capitol press conference Oct. 9 to promote passage of SQ 834.”
Echols said Oklahomas deserve “their opportunity to decide what they think.”
“So as to whether or not something should be in the constitution, it’s the same reason,” Echols said. “It’s easy for me to say because I’m term limited, but when you put something in the constitution, you avoid the shenanigans of the Legislature. The citizens get the opportunity to decide what they want to do.”
Echols expressed concern about “what’s going on nationwide,” where Washington, D.C. and a few municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont allow noncitizens to vote.
“To act like that trend wouldn’t make its way to Oklahoma, in my mind, defies logic,” Echols said. “I think the very best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. That’s the trend that’s moving, and I think the citizens deserve the opportunity to vote. At the end of the day, what the Legislature said is, ‘Citizens, you get to have your opinion heard.'”
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State Question 834 called ‘misinformation’
Noncitizens already are ineligible to become registered voters in the state of Oklahoma, and several laws are in place to ensure compliance, according to a page on the Oklahoma State Election Board website regarding noncitizens.
It is a felony for a noncitizen to register to vote in Oklahoma. No person shall be permitted to vote in any election conducted by any county election board unless such person is a registered voter, unless otherwise provided by law. In addition, “no voter registration services shall be offered to any person who, at the time of an application for issuance or renewal of an Oklahoma driver license or state identification card, provides documentation that shows that the person is not a citizen of the United States.”
Last year, legislators passed Senate Bill 377, which states the court clerk in each county must prepare a list of all persons excused from jury duty for not being U.S. citizens each month and provide the list to the secretary of the county election board. The secretary must then cancel the voter registration of each registered person on the list and report any noncitizen registered to vote to the district attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Since the law was implemented last November, six individuals who were excused from jury duty for being a noncitizen were found on the voter rolls and removed as required by law,” Paul Ziriax, secretary of the State Election Board, said in an emailed statement. “While voter history records indicate that none of the individuals voted in any Oklahoma election, it is a felony for a noncitizen to register to vote in Oklahoma. These individuals were reported to the appropriate district attorney and U.S. attorney for investigation.”
To place SQ 834 on November’s ballot, SJR 23 passed on the last day of this year’s legislative session, 37-7 in the Senate and 71-11 in the House of Representatives. SJR 23 was authored by Sen. Micheal Bergstrom (R-Adair), and House Speaker Charles McCall (R-Atoka) was the lead sponsor across the rotunda.
“At the end of last session, the Legislature passed SJR 23 to make it crystal clear that we want only legal citizens voting in Oklahoma elections,” McCall said in an emailed statement. “This seems like common sense, but with states like California and New York working to find ways to give illegal immigrants voting rights, common sense has become anything but common. SQ 834, like SJR 23, expresses the will of Oklahomans to only have United States citizens voting in Oklahoma elections. Election integrity is of paramount importance, and making our state constitution crystal clear on this issue should be widely supported by all who value safe and secure elections.”
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Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval (D-OKC) said SQ 834 may sound like it is addressing a problem in Oklahoma, but it is really just stirring up people’s emotions through political rhetoric.
“Republicans are buying into misinformation that we’re hearing about undocumented individuals voting in elections, which is not really true,” he said in an interview. “There isn’t much data that backs that up, but it is political rhetoric that is continuously being thrown out there to rile people up, and it’s misinformation.”
Alonso-Sandoval said the effort to get the measure on the ballot is a waste of state resources and a distraction from addressing more serious issues, such as health care, education and child welfare.
“Things like ballot [questions] cost money,” he said. “They take resources from the state. Unfortunately, it’s a waste, you know. Republicans have spent legislative time, people’s taxpayer dollars to put an irrelevant semantics argument on our ballot. Oklahoma has one of the most secure election processes in the entire United States, and I think there’s a lot to be proud about that.”
Alonso-Sandoval said he supports secure elections, but he said SQ 834 does nothing to improve election security and only serves to divide Oklahomans.
“We’re just wasting resources, time on things that unfortunately aren’t going to make a difference,” he said. “I would hope more state leaders were focused on actual meaningful policy initiatives and ballot initiatives, because this is just one of those things that continues to add to the false rhetoric that is being thrown out there.”
