Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, alongside state election officers, proudly introduced a significant victory in sustaining the state’s standing as a nationwide chief in election integrity.
As a part of an ongoing effort to make sure that solely eligible voters take part in Oklahoma elections, officers confirmed the removing of over 450,000 ineligible names from voter rolls since January 2021.
The sweeping cleanup contains purging deceased voters, duplicate registrations, and convicted felons.
“Voting is our most sacred obligation as People— and each Oklahoman desires to know their vote is securely solid and correctly counted,” mentioned Governor Stitt in an announcement.
“The State Election Board and the Secretary of State’s workplace proceed to go above and past to make sure solely eligible Oklahomans can vote in our elections. Their progress reassures me we’ll proceed to guide the nation in election integrity efforts.”
Among the many 453,000 voter registrations eliminated, Oklahoma officers confirmed the purge included 97,065 deceased voters, 14,993 duplicate registrations, 143,682 people who moved out-of-state, 5,607 felons, and almost 195,000 inactive voters who failed the state’s handle verification course of.
In line with Secretary of State Josh Cockroft, the state has fortified its electoral system by means of shut collaboration with Governor Stitt’s workplace and the Legislature, implementing safe voting insurance policies that defend the system from rising applied sciences, together with synthetic intelligence threats.
“We’ve aggressively pursued insurance policies to make sure voting is safe and correct, and we’re innovating to guard our elections from rising expertise like AI. In Oklahoma, each eligible citizen may have their vote counted and their voice heard,” Cockroft mentioned.
In line with the press release:
In November 2023, Governor Stitt fashioned the Marketing campaign Finance and Election Threats Job Drive to scrupulously assess the electoral course of, scrutinize overseas funding in campaigns, and guarantee Oklahoma elections are the most secure within the nation.
The duty power made recommendations, a few of which have been adopted into regulation and process, similar to banning ranked alternative voting and mandating post-election audits. Citing quite a few profitable audits, the duty power concluded that Oklahoma’s electoral course of is without doubt one of the strongest within the nation.
“Oklahoma has an extended custom of doing elections proper,” mentioned Secretary of the State Election Board Paul Ziriax. “Recounts and post-election audits have constantly confirmed the accuracy of Oklahoma’s voting system, and our legal guidelines and procedures are designed to make sure the integrity and safety of our elections.”
Oklahoma Election Quick Information:
- Oklahoma continues the custom of utilizing hand-marked paper ballots that are counted by an e-scan tabulator.
- The e-scan vote tabulators do not need the aptitude to hook up with the web.
- Election officers work intently with Oklahoma Cyber Command to guard our election system from would-be attackers.
- Throughout a recount or post-election audit, election outcomes are confirmed by hand-counting paper ballots.
- The State and County Election Boards are bipartisan.
- In 2020, Governor Stitt signed SB 1779 to outlaw the observe of “poll harvesting” and create new prison penalties for violators.
- Oklahoma voter ID legal guidelines require proof of id for each voter, no matter whether or not you’re voting early, absentee, or in-person.
- Solely United States residents who’re residents of Oklahoma could register to vote and state regulation explicitly prohibits noncitizens from accessing voter registration companies.
- Ballot watchers are commissioned by a candidate or the chair of a acknowledged political social gathering to watch voting units earlier than and after the polls shut.
- Polling locations throughout Oklahoma are staffed by volunteers and voters similar to you. Be taught extra about turning into a ballot employee HERE.
The deadline to register to vote within the November election is October 11, 2024. Oklahomans can register to vote HERE and verify their voter registration standing HERE.
Governor Stitt reiterated the significance of safeguarding elections in a latest put up on X, emphasizing the state’s dedication to hand-marked paper ballots and tabulation by means of e-scan machines which might be totally disconnected from the web.
“Oklahoma continues the custom of utilizing hand-marked paper ballots. The ballots are counted by an e-scan tabulator. These tabulators do NOT have the aptitude to hook up with the web,” Stitt posted.
“Election officers work intently with Oklahoma Cyber Command to guard our election system from would-be attackers. Throughout a recount or election audit, election outcomes are confirmed by hand-counting the paper ballots.”
The governor additionally took goal on the controversial observe of poll harvesting, reminding Oklahomans that he signed SB 1779 in 2020 to outlaw the observe and impose prison penalties on violators.
He emphasised that the state’s strict voter ID legal guidelines—requiring proof of id for each voter, whether or not voting early, absentee, or in individual—be sure that solely U.S. residents residing in Oklahoma can take part in elections.
“All of us want an ID to fly, purchase alcohol, money a verify, and many others. There’s no cause a state shouldn’t have strict voter ID legal guidelines. It’s simply frequent sense,” Stitt mentioned.
Take a look at the complete replace from my workplace right here:https://t.co/RTax5IISyp
— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) September 18, 2024
Final month, Governor Greg Abbott introduced that the state has efficiently eliminated over a million ineligible voters from its voter rolls for the reason that enactment of Senate Invoice 1 in 2021.
This decisive motion contains almost 500,000 deceased people and hundreds of noncitizens.
The in depth evaluation course of carried out by the Secretary of State’s workplace and county voter registrars has yielded important outcomes, together with:
- Over 6,500 noncitizens
- Over 6,000 voters with felony convictions
- Over 457,000 deceased people
- Over 463,000 voters on the suspense checklist
- Over 134,000 voters who confirmed that they had moved
- Over 65,000 voters who failed to reply to examination notices
- Over 19,000 voters who requested cancellation of their registration
In complete, these actions account for over 1.1 million ineligible voters being faraway from Texas’ voter rolls.
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