Oklahoma voters have been decisive with initiative petitions. Lawmakers should show some respect | Opinion

Oklahoma politicians have developed a nasty habit of questioning the will of the voters.

Whenever there’s an election outcome for a citizen-led petition that they don’t like, lawmakers like to spout off that voters didn’t know what they were doing as they come up with creative — and often offensive — ways to circumvent the will of the people.

They made the legalization of medical marijuana chaotic by refusing to quickly put reasonable rules in place.

They’ve pushed back against a ban on cockfighting by arguing that voters don’t actually want it to be a felony offense.

And, despite voters making it clear that they embrace a clear delineation between church and state, legislators continue to file bills encouraging Ten Commandment monuments or policies that blur those lines.

But their biggest two punching bags appear to be State Question 780 — a citizen-led criminal justice reform initiative — and the state’s constitutionally protected initiative petition process that gives Oklahomans the opportunity to get their own reforms on the ballot.

House Speaker Charles McCall has proposed House Bill 1105, adding additional hurdles to the overall process. The bill, which advanced out of the House largely along party lines, would require those wanting to circulate a petition to pay $1,000 up front. Signature collectors would have to undergo a criminal background check, and the bill expands the timeline to object to a measure from 10 to 90 days.

There have been other proposals in recent years that would require a certain number of signatures from various congressional districts, meaning one quadrant of the state could single-handedly destroy a reform that everyone else wants.

It’s already really difficult and expensive for Oklahomans to get their own measures on the ballot, and we certainly don’t need any ham-handed efforts making it more complicated.

There’s a certain irony in watching lawmakers trying to make democracy more complex for their constituents even while ensuring that their own access remains simple.

See, they love putting their own state questions on the ballot. All they require of themselves is a majority vote of the Legislature to do so, and they have no interest in raising the qualifying bar for themselves.

Meanwhile, it appears that since 2018, lawmakers have only gotten one of their own direct-to-ballot reforms approved by voters. That one dealt with crime victims’ rights.

Voters smashed their dreams of tapping into the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust to pay for Medicaid expansion. They said heck no to a measure dealing with property taxes, one authored by nearly all state senators that would have created the “Oklahoma Vision Fund” and another that would have required the governor and lieutenant governor to be jointly elected.

Voters approved two voter-initiated petitions during the same period — Medicaid expansion and medicinal marijuana legalization, according to state records. They rejected others.

Oklahomans take seriously their power at the ballot box, and they’re just not voting yes willy-nilly. They know what they’re doing when they vote despite what some lawmakers would have you believe.

In 2016, Oklahomans were sick of having the highest incarceration rate in the nation. They were done spending their hard-earned tax dollars on locking up nonviolent offenders. So advocates took matters into their own hands, collected signatures and got State Question 780 placed on the November ballot.

SQ 780 reclassified some drug possession crimes and minor property offenses as misdemeanors.

Voters statewide approved it with 58% support.

But you wouldn’t know that by everything lawmakers have done since then to reverse it.

The latest effort is one filed by Republican Rep. John George that seeks to lower the threshold for a theft to be classified as a felony. House lawmakers approved changing it back to $500 even after voters overwhelmingly chose to increase it to $1,000.

George argued that thefts have increased dramatically since the question passed, and that he’s not concerned with reducing the prison population, but instead with keeping people and property safe, Oklahoma Voice reporter Barbara Hoberock reported.

He warned that retail theft could put locally owned stores out of business.

A yes vote, he told his colleagues, is being “smart on crime,” while a no vote is “soft on crime.”

In reality, a yes vote is the equivalent of not respecting the will of the people.

To clarify, property crimes have actually been decreasing since 2021, according to Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation crime statistics. Overall, they’re down 13.7% from 2021.

Voters know exactly what they’re doing when they cast their ballot — whether for broader issue-based reforms or specific candidates or parties.

It’s patently offensive — and frankly alarming — when legislators don’t respect the outcome.

As we all know, there’s a general rule of thumb in contested democratic elections: Someone is going to be unhappy with the outcome.

Most reasonable people respect our neighbor’s differing opinions, accept that they won’t win every time and move on.

It’s time for lawmakers to move on, too.

We know what we’re doing, so let’s let democracy prevail, and let’s respect the intelligence of our voters.

Janelle Stecklein is editor of Oklahoma Voice. An award-winning journalist, Stecklein has been covering Oklahoma government and politics since moving to the state in 2014.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: oklahoma politicians voters initiative petition