Citizens in Charge

You have full Initiative & Referendum rights. Citizens can pass laws they write or suspend a statute passed by the Legislature by collecting enough petition signatures to place the statute on the statewide ballot for a decision by the voters. Voters can also initiate constitutional amendments by Initiative.

Coalition for an Open & Accessible Initiative Process:

Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs

Oklahomans for Initiative Rights

Oklahomans for Responsible Government

Oklahoma’s initiative requires the highest number of signatures be collected in the second shortest time period in the country, making it the hardest state process to use. The process is so restricted that only two citizen initiatives have made it on the ballot in the last ten years!

Arizona voters could have the chance next year to change how ballot measures make it into the polling place.

A bipartisan group of state legislators has drafted an overhaul package it wants to put before Arizonans in 2010. The package, introduced in the state House, was spurred by problems with several proposed 2008 ballot measures, including allegations of misleading titles, fraudulent signatures and bogus legal language.

We’re happy to report that Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has dismissed criminal charges against three political activists and finally ended his assault on popular democracy in the Sooner State.

With no extra money available to spend this session, legislators would be wise to work on legislation that makes a difference but doesn’t make a dent in the treasury. State Sen. Randy Brogdon is doing that with efforts to reform the initiative petition process in Oklahoma.

Brogdon, R-Owasso, has offered legislation that would reduce the number of signatures needed to send a proposal to a vote of the people, lengthen the amount of time allowed to collect signatures, and in general make the process a bit more user friendly for petitioners.

Criminal charges against three out-of-state signature gatherers were dismissed after the state’s attorney general decided not to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review Oklahoma’s initiative petition law.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson said Thursday his office would stop its legal challenge of a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that ruled unconstitutional Oklahoma’s law requiring petition signature gatherers to be residents.

Along with Oklahomans for Initiative Rights (OIR), Citizens in Charge Foundation sponsored &qot;Reforming the Reform Process: How to Restore Oklahoma’s Initiative,&qot; a public seminar in Oklahoma City on November 15. The seminar brought together state and national experts on I&R, activists, political figures and scholars to discuss ways to make Oklahoma’s I&R process more usable.

Oklahoma’s “Reforming the Reform Process” event is only one example of how Oklahomans are rolling up their sleeves to protect the once vibrant state initiative process. Oklahomans clearly see that the initiative process is the best tool available for reforming government and holding it accountable.

The name Paul Jacob is familiar here in Arkansas, where he led the struggle to get term limits adopted in Arkansas. Then he went national as head of U.S. Term Limits and now runs an outfit called Citizens in Charge.
It seems Mr. Jacob has never outgrown his need to put the people, not the politicians, in control of their government. One needn’t agree with his ideas to admire his commitment — or defend his right to express them.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson recently told supporters that he plans to run for Governor in 2010. So voters might be interested in how the AG has treated critics of government while serving as the state’s top law enforcer. The case of Paul Jacob is instructive.

Oklahoma will appeal a federal appeals court ruling that held unconstitutional the state’s law banning out-of-state initiative petition circulators, a spokesman for Attorney General Drew Edmondson says.
“We have some options,” Charlie Price said.
One route would be to seek a rehearing before the full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, another to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

An appeals court today struck down as unconstitutional Oklahoma’s law that bans non-residents from circulating petitions to place proposed laws and constitutional amendments on the ballot.
The law was challenged by a group known as Yes on Term Limits Inc. which wants to circulate petitions to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to limit terms of several state officials.

A federal appeals court Thursday ruled that an Oklahoma law that bars nonresidents from circulating initiative petitions in the state is unconstitutional and reversed a lower court that had upheld the statute.
In a 16-page decision, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver overturned the ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard in Oklahoma City and sent the case back to him for more hearings.