Law & Principles

OCPA praises lawmakers for sending initiative-petition reforms to governor

May 21, 2025

Staff

OKLAHOMA CITY (May 21, 2025)—Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small today praised members of the Oklahoma Senate for providing final approval to common-sense initiative petition reforms.

“Opponents of Senate Bill 1027 claim that Oklahomans desperately want to send many proposals to a statewide vote but will be completely incapable of succeeding if they have to gather signatures outside of Oklahoma and Tulsa counties,” Small said. “That’s obvious nonsense. Any measure with strong, statewide approval from voters will be able to gather signatures from citizens across the state. SB 1027 simply reduces the ability of fringe elements to game the initiative-petition process while ignoring voters across nearly all of Oklahoma.

“House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, state Senator David Bullard, and Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, in particular, deserve praise for taking on this important issue.”

Senate Bill 1027 requires that the gist of a proposition, the description of a proposed ballot measure provided to voters, 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 must be Oklahoma registered voters, and signature-gatherers must publicly reveal if they are being paid by outside entities to circulate a petition and identify their funders.

The bill requires that a petition inform voters of a proposal’s fiscal impact, which could require either tax increases or the diversion of funds from other uses.

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

The provision receiving the most attention requires that initiative petitions collect signatures from Oklahomans across the state, not just those living within a few concentrated areas. Under the bill’s reforms, petitions will need to gather signatures from citizens in about 16 to 20 counties. Oklahoma has 77 counties total.

Both the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma Senate have provided final approval to SB 1027. The bill now proceeds to the governor.