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Thinking Outside the Box Ballot access laws make it tough to be an Independent Okie By Chris Hillin The Oklahoma Daily (OU paper) Nov. 1, 2006 If the United States’ two major parties are big tents, drawing all possible voters under their expansive roofs, then third-party options are lean-to shacks scattered across the political landscape. In Oklahoma, independent political voices face fierce crowding on the political stage, and many independents say Oklahoma’s ballot access laws make it difficult to steal the spotlight. David Splinter, vice chairman of the Oklahoma City Libertarians, said to be an Independent means standing in opposition to the two major parties and being an alternative to the same policies and thought voters hear every election. Many independent candidates get started because they feel the need for another perspective on politics. J. M. Branum, Green Party candidate for Oklahoma House District 99 in Oklahoma City, said he announced his candidacy when he learned there would be no opposition to the person running in his district. “I just wanted to get my thoughts on the issues out there,” Branum said. “There just needed to be another voice influencing the other candidates’ policies.” Nationwide, more than 30 percent of the roughly 6,100 legislative seats on the ballot already have been decided because the candidates are running unopposed, according to the Associated Press. Like many third-party candidates, Branum knows he doesn’t have much of a shot in his race. On his Web site, he cites a quote he gave to a state newspaper. “The odds are very slim, extremely slim, that I could win this race,” he stated on the site. Jared Ryan, Libertarian and OU graduate student, said he began to think about alternatives to the major parties about a year ago. “I was just tired of all of it,” Ryan said. “There was so much bureaucracy and back stabbing in American politics, and a lot of that comes from the fact that there is no real competition to keep most politicians honest and working in the public’s interest.” Despite calls for change from many of the larger independent parties, the U.S. has remained predominantly a two-party system. Political parties in some states have obstacles to overcome just to get on the ballot. Oklahoma’s entrance barriers to the political arena are among the stiffest. In 2004, Oklahoma was the first state since 1972 in which no votes were cast for anyone other than the two major party presidential candidates, according to the Congressional Quarterly. Oklahoma was the only state in the U.S. that featured only George W. Bush and John Kerry on the presidential ballot. All other candidates, and in some cases up to seven [webmaster note: Colorado had 12 choices]. Third-party candidates across the state support more open access to the state ballot to buck this trend. Currently, Oklahoma State Law requires 73,000 valid signatures for a party to form during an election, crippling smaller parties who have a strong but limited support, Splinter said. In response to this perceived injustice, the Libertarian, Green, and Constitution Party members, as well as independents and concerned Republicans and Democrats, formed a coalition know as Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform, which both Branum and Splinter belong to. Splinter said OBAR seeks to significantly lower the number of signatures required to be recognized as a legitimate party to 5,000. “I don’t think people realize the difficulty in gathering so many signatures,” Splinter said. “I have been out getting signatures for many hours and only collected a couple hundred. I think that 5,000 is plenty to demonstrate support.” Splinter said OBAR has introduced ballot reform bills to the Oklahoma State House three times, and all three times the bills have been stopped in committee. In 2005, the last time a bill was introduced, it was halted in the House Rules Committee, chaired by State Rep. Sue Tibbs, R-Tulsa. Ironically, Tibbs herself had introduced similar legislation in the past. When the bill she carried failed, she said she was approached about piggybacking the bill onto another of her pieces of legislation. Tibbs said she refused, fearing it would impact the passing of her own bill. “People resist change, and it would have been a big one,” Tibbs said. “People resist that…not knowing how it will affect the system. But I think the bill will come forward again and I think it should.” OBAR plans to introduce anther bill regarding ballot reform in late December when the House session begins.

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Oklahoma Coalition of Independents
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