The Fair Ballot
Access Bill was proposed by the Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform (OBAR),
an alliance of Libertarian, Green, Reform, and Southern political parties.
The purpose of the bill was to lessen the requirements necessary for
political parties besides Democrats and Republicans to be placed on
Oklahoma ballots. Currently, signatures from five percent of the
presidential or gubernatorial voter turnout is required to petition a
third party to get on the state ballot. This requirement is the most
restrictive of any state in the United States. The Fair Ballot Access Bill
would have lowered the number of signatures required to only 5,000. Last
year, the bill died in committee.
Over the years,
various third parties have focused severe criticism on the relatively
narrow ballot access provided by Oklahoma law. Yet, court challenges to
the restrictive law have met with little success (Winger, 1999). Although
the legal hurdles to getting a third party candidate on the ballot are
extremely difficult, Darcy and Motsinger point out that third parties
regularly succeed in getting on the ballot. They assert that Oklahoma law
is least accommodating to a certain kind of presidential candidate—namely,
one who fails to gain the nomination from one of the two traditional
parties and then attempts to mount a last minute independent or
third-party campaign. Moreover, Darcy and Motsinger suggest that the few
votes actually garnered in Oklahoma for those third parties have
historically amounted to little more than “the stray and random votes a
totally unknown candidate of an unknown political party would receive,
should they manage to show up on the ballot” (1999).
Despite its
legislative defeat, the participants in the latest survey were generally
supportive of easing the restrictions on ballot access (59%) with the
understanding that it would help ensure better representation for Oklahoma
citizens. Furthermore, the survey respondents indicated that a successful
fair ballot access initiative would have a positive impact on policy
deliberation and legislation (71%). The respondents were evenly divided on
the question as to whether or not fair ballot access legislation would
actually have a significant effect on electoral outcomes.
Forty-eight members of the organization of professionally trained
political scientists representing academia, business and government
sectors participated in this most recent survey.
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This
survey is published for the information of the people of Oklahoma and does
not reflect any particular political viewpoint or position of individual
members, the Advisory Board, any of the members’ employers, or the
University of Central Oklahoma.