Members of an Oklahoma Senate committee have advanced legislation that would change the state’s initiative-petition process to maximize voter clarity, provide Oklahomans more information about those funding petition efforts, and require support from citizens across a larger part of the state for a proposal to be placed on the ballot.

“These are much-needed changes to protect Oklahoma’s initiative petition process from out-of-state interest groups who want to change our state laws and constitution,” said state Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant. “We need clear transparency and common-sense guardrails on how initiative petition campaigns collect signatures, who’s behind them, and who’s funding them.

“This bill also ensures that more Oklahomans have a say in initiative petitions by requiring signatures from multiple counties, rather than just collecting signatures in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas,” Bullard continued. “If Oklahomans are going to have to pay with their tax dollars and their freedoms for what someone puts on the ballot, then more residents deserve to have a voice in the process.”

Senate Bill 1027, by Bullard, requires that the gist of a proposition (the description of a proposed ballot measure provided to voters) must use simple language that clearly describes the proposal and avoids jargon understood by only a subset of the population.

The bill also requires that those gathering signatures be Oklahoma citizens who are registered to vote, and signature gatherers must publicly reveal if they are paid by outside entities to circulate a petition and identify their funders.

SB 1027 also requires that those who sign a petition must first read the full ballot title for the proposed measure.

The legislation further requires that initiative petitions receive signatures from Oklahomans across the state, not only those living within a few concentrated areas.

SB 1027 establishes that no more than 10 percent of the total number of signatures to get an initiative petition on the ballot may come from any one county with more than 400,000 residents. The bill also states that no more than four percent of signatures shall come from any one county with a population of less than 400,000.

Bullard said that change will require campaigns to collect signatures from a minimum of around 20 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties. Currently, petition efforts can focus on only two to three counties with a heavy population.

The bill also requires gists to clearly state whether an initiative petition will have a fiscal impact that could require either a tax increase or the diversion of funds from other uses.

SB 1027 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 7-2 vote. The bill now proceeds to the floor of the Oklahoma Senate.

The measure was quickly attacked by officials with Oklahoma United, a group seeking to have Oklahoma’s election system changed to largely mirror California elections.

Officials with Oklahoma United have launched an initiative-petition effort to place State Question 835 on the ballot in 2026, asking Oklahoma voters to effectively end primary elections and instead replace them with a June “jungle election” in which all candidates from all parties are placed on a single ballot and all voters participate. Then the top two finishers would proceed to a November election, even if both of the candidates are members of the same party (as is common in California elections).

Had Oklahoma United’s proposed election system been in place in Oklahoma in 2018, the November general election for governor would have pitted two Democratic candidates against each other with no Republican candidate included on the November ballot.

Margaret Kobos, founder of Oklahoma United, said that SB 1027’s transparency provisions are a “step backward for democracy.”