Attempts to overhaul the initiative petition process are a direct attack on Oklahomans’ rights

For more than two decades, I’ve worked in policy and advocacy in Oklahoma, standing alongside people from all walks of life to push for solutions when politicians have failed to act.

I’ve seen a lot of change in our state — some for better, some for worse — but one thing that has remained consistent is this: when politicians ignore the will of the people, Oklahomans have always had a powerful tool to create change directly and solve the biggest problems in their lives — the right to the initiative petition process.

That right is enshrined in our state Constitution. Oklahomans believed then, as many still do now, that democracy should be more than just casting a vote every few years. It should be a living, breathing process where the people themselves can act when their elected officials won’t. And throughout the years both major political parties have relied on that principle.

Let’s not forget that it was Republicans who used the initiative petition process strategically to rewrite the political map — both in Oklahoma and across the country. In 2004, during President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, Republican operatives pushed to put same-sex marriage bans on state ballots, including Oklahoma’s, to energize evangelical voters and give Bush a second term.

It worked. The ban passed overwhelmingly, and Bush won reelection. It wasn’t just a political stunt — it was a calculated use of direct democracy to drive turnout and shape national outcomes at a time when his administration was under heavy fire over the Iraq War.

A decade earlier, when Democrats held firm control of the Oklahoma Legislature, Republicans turned to the initiative petition to bypass the majority. They led the charge to put legislative term limits on the ballot, and voters approved them. That single measure dramatically reshaped Oklahoma politics. Today, Republicans dominate both chambers and every statewide office. The very process some of them now seek to weaken is the same one that helped them gain power.

This is not a partisan issue. Initiative petitions have been used to address real problems ignored by politicians for years. Because of the Oklahoma people, we’ve expanded Medicaid, saving rural hospitals and increasing access to care for hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans. We’ve reformed our criminal justice system, pushed for school funding, and limited the growth of government.

That’s why efforts to cripple the initiative petition process, like Senate Bill 1027 are so dangerous. This bill would make it harder, if not impossible for everyday Oklahomans to bring forward and pass initiative petitions — adding red tape, impossible signature thresholds, and injecting partisan politics into the process.  It’s a direct attack on our constitutional right to govern ourselves when politicians won’t do their jobs.

Make no mistake: this isn’t about protecting the integrity of the process. It’s about protecting power — concentrating it among politicians and powerful special interests and keeping it out of the hands of the people.

Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or independent, this should concern you. Because once the door is closed to citizen-led change, we all lose. The issues we care about — health care, education, public safety, economic fairness — don’t belong to one party. And neither should political power.

For more than 100 years, Oklahoma has trusted its people with the power to act. Why now would we let short-sighted political maneuvering take our power away? Our future depends on protecting it.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.