Senate Bill 1027 (SB 1027)

Senate Bill 1027 (SB 1027) is an Oklahoma law that makes it harder for Oklahomans to use the initiative petition process — the tool citizens use to place state questions on the ballot when lawmakers fail to act. Initiative petitions are the only way voters can propose laws or constitutional amendments directly.

The law’s most significant change is the creation of strict county-level signature caps: the number of signatures can be no more than 11.5% of the total number of votes cast for governor in the most recent general election in each county, and no more than 20.8% for a constitutional petition, can come from any single county, SB 1027 would effectively exclude millions of registered voters from being able to sign an initiative petition.

Alongside the caps, SB 1027 adds several new administrative and procedural hurdles. The Secretary of State gains broader authority to reject the “gist” — the required summary printed atop each signature sheet — and campaigns may be forced to rewrite it before circulation begins. All circulators must be registered Oklahoma voters, must disclose whether they are paid and by whom, and cannot be compensated per signature. The bill bars out-of-state funding for signature-gathering work and requires weekly public expenditure reports — even though similar voter-registration requirements for circulators and bans on out-of-state funding have previously been struck down by the courts. It also allows individual signers to later request removal of their signatures and requires additional personal information from each signer.

SB 1027 does not change the topics citizens may petition on, but it alters the process itself in ways that make qualifying a measure far more burdensome. The new county caps, combined with expanded administrative requirements, push an already restrictive system even further, shifting power away from ordinary Oklahomans and toward the state.

As of November 2025, the law is under active review by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.