Quotes of the Day

“Let’s get past who was in the room, who was locked out of the room, who was right, who was lying, who was wrong. The people of Oklahoma deserve better than that. It is the democratic process, but if I were someone who was watching I would say, ‘God, I just wish they would get it together.’”

–House Minority Leader Leader Emily Virgin, D-Norman, speaking about the budget disagreements between Gov. Stitt and the Legislature [NonDoc]

“I think it’s a very scary situation. I think it’s a situation that could get out of hand in a heartbeat. The reality is we don’t know exactly what the magnitude of the situation is because we are not engaging in widespread testing within our prison system.”

–Kris Steele, executive director of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, speaking about the dangers of COVID-19 in Oklahoma’s prisons at the Tulsa World’s virtual town hall. [Tulsa World]

“Now, there are literally thousands of people filing for unemployment and the only way they are getting the cards, are if they agree to pay the $15 fee to have it expedited. And conveniently, they deduct it from your account before they send the card.”

-Sally Cannon, describing how paying a $15 fee to a third-party vendor would expedite delivery of a family member’s state unemployment benefit. State official said non-expedited cards are facing delays of between 16 and 18 days. [The Frontier]

“This has me almost wanting to give up on life. Over a month now without any income, my bills are piling up and my mental health is rapidly declining. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to hold on.”

-An out-of-work Oklahoman talking about delays in receiving and processing state unemployment claims [NonDoc]

“They never act that quickly when it comes to other issues. It hasn’t been a good week for democracy in Oklahoma.”

-Jan Largent, president of the League of Women Voters of Oklahoma, speaking about lawmakers fast-tracking legislation that placed unneeded barriers to voting safely [CNHI]

“No Oklahoman should have to risk their health and the health of their family members to vote in an election. SB 210 was rushed through the Legislature in response to an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision issued just this past Monday holding that Oklahoma voters’ signature on absentee ballot affidavits is sufficient to prove their identity.”

-Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd [The Oklahoman]

In the face of an unprecedented national health emergency, our legislators pledged that the remainder of this session would focus only on bills that directly impacted the state’s health, safety, and economic security. Placing restrictions on absentee voting achieves none of those objectives. In fact, the new voting requirements — and the eventual return of notarization requirements — is voter suppression.

–OK Policy Executive Director Ahniwake Rose in a statement released after the House voted to impose new restrictions on absentee voting [OK Policy]

“I’m quite concerned that as we ramp up testing and ask people to be tested, there might be a lot of people that don’t have symptoms and frankly they don’t want to know if they’re positive because they don’t want to be isolated or quarantined and they don’t want to be put out of work.” 

-Aaron Wendelboe, Oklahoma’s interim state epidemiologist [The Oklahoman]

“This is a victory for every Oklahoma voter who wants to exercise the right to vote but not risk their lives to do so.”

-Peggy Winton, one of two petitioners who sued the state to remove the notarization requirement for absentee ballots [NonDoc]

“This is about money, plain and simple… There were definitely people who were sick or who lived with people who were sick that still came to work. But management told us plain out that we were not shutting down and that everybody better go back to work.”

-Former Seaboard employee speaking about working conditions at their Guymon pork processing plant [The Oklahoman]