Delaware County Sheriff’s candidate remains on ballot
JAY, Okla. — The Delaware County Election Board voted unanimously to retain Ray Thomas on the ballot for Delaware County Sheriff.
Incumbent Sheriff James Beck and Thomas will square off in the Primary Election set for June 18.
Both men are Republicans, and the winner will assume the top law enforcement spot in Delaware County.
Beck challenged Thomas’s candidacy saying he was not legally qualified to run for sheriff because of decades of using two different versions of his first name.
One of Beck’s challenges centered on Thomas’s license with the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training also known as CLEET. A CLEET license shows an individual is licensed for law enforcement and private security in Oklahoma.
Thomas received his CLEET certification using the name “Thurman” and signed under oath this was his legal name. However, while also under oath, Thomas filed in 2024 his sheriff’s candidacy papers, stating is legal name was “Therman.”
“So which is it?” said Kenny Wright, Beck’s attorney during the two-hour hearing.
“There is no CLEET record of a Therman Thomas,” Wright said.
“Never in my life have I had an issue with my name,” Thomas said when questioned by Wright.
Chase McBride, Thomas’s attorney poked holes in Wright’s question saying, “CLEET identifies each law enforcement officer by number – not by name.”
LEGAL DOCUMENTS
Testimony before the Election Board showed Thomas’s legal name on his birth certificate is “Therman Ray Thomas.” However, his first social security card obtained when he was three years old shows the spelling “Thurman Ray Thomas.”
As a child and into his early adulthood, Wright presented evidence “Thurman” was used on all legal documents, including voter registrations in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
When Thomas renewed an expired drivers license he was required to use his birth certificate as supporting documentation. From then on, Thomas used “Therman” on most all legal documents, including when he filed his candidacy for sheriff in 2024.
Wright questioned why on his 2022 candidacy records he used the name “Thurman” and on his 2024 candidacy records he used the name “Therman.”
Thomas didn’t have an answer for Wright’s question other than he “sometimes forgot which name to use because for years he used the name ‘Thurman.’”
“After years of spelling it ‘Thurman’, it was a habit,” Thomas said. “I never tried to hide anything or do anything outside the law.”
“I never corrected it,” Thomas said referring to legal documents spelled “Thurman.”
“I never thought about it,” Thomas said.
Not including arresting reports as a deputy, a review of legal documents and social media accounts shows Thomas used the spelling “Thurman” on most of the state, county and federal documents and used the spelling “Therman” on a handful of documents.
Before casting their vote to keep Thomas on the ballot, Lawrence Knowles, the Delaware County Democrat chairman and Cheryl Hein, the Delaware County Republican vice-chairman said Thomas had taken steps to correct the name.
“I think Mr. Beck is scared of him,” said Chase McBride, Thomas’s attorney in his closing arguments for the reason for the dispute in Thomas’s candidacy.
The mix-up spelling of a name doesn’t disqualify Thomas from running for sheriff, he said.
