OKLAHOMA CITY (June 13, 2025)—Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small issued the following statement today regarding the court challenges filed by supporters of State Question 836 against the initiative petition reforms in Senate Bill 1027 that were passed overwhelmingly by the Oklahoma Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt: 

“It’s obvious that the downtown Tulsa and Oklahoma City liberals backing State Question 836 see our state’s new initiative petition reforms as a threat to their plan to replace Oklahoma’s current election system with California’s election boondoggle. 

“Make no mistake, the purpose of SQ 836 is to minimize the impact of conservative and independent voters in Oklahoma elections at every level by adopting, verbatim, California’s election system.

“The people pushing that scheme see the reforms signed into law recently with Senate Bill 1027 as detrimental to their plans—which says all you need to know about those people, their plans, and their aims. 

“The results in California speak for themselves. California’s top-two jungle primary election system produces politicians who condone and encourage the lawlessness and mayhem the rest of the nation is now watching with great sadness. 

“The reforms in SB 1027 will force anyone looking to put a state question on the Oklahoma ballot to reach out to a much broader group of Oklahomans in order to gather the necessary number of signatures. Instead of getting most of their signatures in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Norman, groups will have to gather signatures in at least a dozen counties, similar to how a majority of states have to sign on in order to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

“To challenge common-sense reforms like these speaks volumes about the aims of SQ 836 and its backers.”