Tulsa and Oklahoma City municipal elections have proven something: When every voter gets the same ballot, candidates representing the broadest consensus of a community emerge. That's a good outcome.
When citizens feel they have a choice in their representation, they tend to vote more often and enter public life. Civic engagement goes up, and elected officials are more responsive to constituents.
Oklahoma faces a crisis in democracy. Since 2008, the state ranks in the bottom 10 in voter turnout for presidential races, including next to last in 2020. In the November election, 76% of Oklahoma voters younger than 30 did not vote.
A reason may be that 70% of legislative races were already decided. Compare that to November 2018, when about 75% of Oklahoma House and Senate races had a candidate from both parties. Oklahoma is considered the least competitive state for legislative races by Ballotpedia.
That apathy bleeds into local, county and federal races, creating lopsided outcomes.
More moderates are seeking a change for better balance and fairness to all voters, no matter the party affiliation.
States enacting election reforms such as variations of open primaries and ranked-choice voting are showing promising results. Oklahoma remains one of only six states with straight-party voting.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum and Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, both Republicans, support moving the state's primaries to open elections, according to a story from Tulsa World reporter Kevin Canfield. They point to their experiences in nonpartisan races and governance as examples of healthy democratic involvement.
The nonpartisan Oklahoma United for Progress movement seeks election reforms to give more voters access in choosing elected representatives. The goal is to quell the toxic rhetoric dividing communities and increase voter participation.
Extremist candidates are emerging from closed primaries, and single-party options emphasize party over people. Voters are being turned off by hyper-partisanship rather than being motivated by political parties.
This polarization avoids discussions on more complex problems and solutions. Taxpayers pay for the primaries for political parties, making the exclusion of thousands of voters even more unfair.
Oklahoma United for Progress is holding outreach efforts to know what type of changes voters want. It seeks an initiative petition for a statewide vote in 2026. We appreciate the effort and look forward to the proposal.
A preferred route would be for elected officials to do this work, but that is unlikely to happen. The status quo benefits parties and those currently in power.
Democrats had a chance to make reforms, including getting rid of straight-party voting, but didn't. Republican leaders now have the same resistance.
It's time to the right thing for Oklahoma and bring reforms that energize the electorate and tamp down extremism.
[Editorial / Tulsa World]
