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What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
Statement: SQ 832 election date is longest delay for a state question in past 10 years: Oklahoma’s governor this week set a June 2026 election date for a special election on raising the state’s minimum wage. The 21-month span between the governor announcing the election date and the election itself is more than six times longer than the median time for all other state question elections during the last 10 years. [OK Policy]
- From OK Policy: SQ 832 Information & Resources
Policy Matters: Voting is the price of democracy: Voting is one of the most important responsibilities we have as Oklahomans. However, too many of our friends and family members choose to sit on the sidelines, treating the democratic process as a spectator sport. It’s baffling to me that so many Oklahomans passively let other people decide who best represents their interests. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
- To update your registration, find your polling place, see sample ballots and more, visit the OK Voter Portal [Oklahoma State Election Board]
Will recommendations from immigrant-focused task force get traction this session? (Capitol Update): While HB 4156 gave state law enforcement officers the authority to arrest people who are found in Oklahoma without legal authority to be in the U.S., the “Oklahoma State Work Permits and Visa Task Force” has issued recommendations towards a more balanced approach to the immigration issue. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
OK Policy in the News
Oklahomans grapple with critical housing crisis (video): Oklahoma, along with the rest of the nation, is facing an affordable housing crisis. OK Policy’s Sabine Brown spoke with the Oklahoma News Report. [OETA on YouTube]
- From OK Policy: Oklahomans will go another year without solutions to housing crisis (2024 Legislative Wrap-up)
Weekly What’s That
Oklahoma law (Title 26, Sections 12-101 ff.) provides for Special Elections to be held when vacancies arise in the office of a member of Congress, the Legislature, or county commissioner.
The Governor must call a special election within 30 days after the vacancy occurs unless the vacancy occurs after March 1 of any even-numbered year if the term of the office expires the same year.
The Governor’s proclamation calling the special election must contain:
- A filing period of three (3) days, on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday not less than ten (10) days from the date of such proclamation;
- The date of the Special Primary Election, not less than twenty (20) days after the close of the filing period; and
- The date of the Special General Election, not less than twenty (20) days after the date of the Special Primary Election.
Special elections are run under the laws applicable to regular primary and general elections, except there is no primary runoff for special elections.
Winners of special elections serve the remainder of the unexpired term, except in certain circumstances when a member of the state House or Senate cannot complete an unexpired term due to state term limits (Title 26, Section 12-110.1).
Legislation passed in 2021 (SB 959) allows the Governor to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat until the time of a special election and sets out the rules regarding the timing of a special election for the U.S. Senate. In cases when statewide offices become vacant, the position is filled by Gubernatorial appointment. If the Governor resigns or is removed from office, the position is filled by the Lieutenant Governor.
The Governor can also call a special election to decide an initiative petition or veto referendum at least 70 days from his executive order or proclamation.
For example, a special election is scheduled for June 2026 for State Question 832, which would increase the state’s minimum wage. Petitioners had hoped to get the question on the November 2024 general election ballot, but the verification process had not been verified by the ballot deadline. The governor issued an executive order on Sept. 10, 2024, that set the election date for the gubernatorial primary on June 16, 2026.
The governor also has the discretion to call for special elections on other dates designated available for special elections. For example, the governor set a special election on March 7, 2023, on SQ 820, an initiative petition to legalize recreational marijuana in Oklahoma. It was the only statewide issue during that election, and it was soundly defeated.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“Taxes are how we pay the bills. If we keep cutting taxes without a plan to replace revenues, we’ll be up a muddy creek without a paddle when our economy eventually heads south again. In an oil-dependent state like Oklahoma, we know it will.”
– Janelle Stecklein, editor of Oklahoma Voice, writing in a commentary about concerns arising from the legislative priorities from the newly announced “Oklahoma Freedom Caucus.” [Janelle Stecklein / Oklahoma Voice]
Editorial of the Week
Opinion: Minimum wage waits, Oklahomans pay
Up yours, Oklahoma.
That’s the message Gov. Kevin Stitt sent to workaday Sooners this week when he finally scheduled the statewide vote on State Question 832, the proposal that if approved would raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour by decade’s end.
The election date? June 16, 2026.
That’s not a typo. Even though 157,287 petition signatures were verified – nearly 60% more than required – Stitt kicked the voting 21 months down the road.
Why? Because he could. The state Constitution gives the governor the sole authority to set the election date once an initiative petition qualifies for the ballot. Even call a special election, if the governor so chooses.
But governors also can use that power to delay, hoping to derail proposals they don’t like. In this case, Stitt and two of the state’s most powerful special interests, the State Chamber and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, want to do everything possible to torpedo SQ 832.
They’re hoping a nearly two-year delay will kill the minimum wage momentum. And it will be finished off by those who bother to turn out in mid-June primaries in a non-presidential election year.
Stitt isn’t publicly owning up to such shenanigans, of course. Instead, he spins it as a benefit to Oklahoma taxpayers – saving them the estimated $1.8 million-plus cost of a statewide special election.
There’s a political science term for his defense: It starts with b-u-l-l and ends by rhyming with his last name.
The reality is, Oklahoma’s savings accounts are overflowing – north of $2 billion, at last count. That’s billion with a “B.” Not $1.8 million with an “M.”
Every tax dollar is no doubt precious. But the state can easily cover the cost of this vote, especially if set on a date with other elections for, say, city council, county commission, school board or bond issues.
Or – gasp! – how about a stand-alone election? One day, one issue. Let The People decide.
Alas, Stitt and Co. weren’t willing to take that chance. After all, state voters repeatedly have acted in recent years on important issues when their elected elite wouldn’t. Think: Medicaid expansion, medical marijuana, and criminal justice reform.
That’s also why the Republican legislative supermajority has been slowly, but surely making it more difficult for The People to get initiative petitions to the ballot.
Why would they do such a thing? Don’t they trust the voters (a longtime GOP talking point)? Truth is, lawmakers and their deep-pocketed benefactors want absolute control over the public policy agenda. Rank-and-file Okies can’t be trusted, don’t you know.
So, even though Raise the Wage Oklahoma dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s to get SQ 832 on the ballot, 320,000 Sooners will be stuck with the 15-year-old, $7.25 an hour minimum wage for another two years or so because the state’s deepest pockets don’t want to spend a dime more on labor, if they can help it.
As Raise the Wage Oklahoma’s Amber England put it, “Waiting two years may not be a big deal to the governor and his wealthy donors, but they should get off the golf course every once in a while and go talk to the thousands of Oklahomans who are struggling to feed their families, pay their rent, or put gas in their car.”
If there is any justice, Stitt and Co.’s game-playing will backfire. Turnout will spike in the June 2026 primary, SQ 832 will win voter approval, and some of the governor’s far-right allies in the Legislature will get the boot.
They deserve as much for their efforts to undermine The People’s right to petition their government.
Numbers of the Day
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- 15.4% – Percentage of Oklahoma households reporting that they had experienced food insecurity in 2021-2023. Oklahoma had the nation’s fifth highest rate of food insecurity, behind Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. [U.S. Department of Agriculture]
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- 47.3% – Just about half of minimum wage workers (47.3% nationally) are working that job as full-time employment. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]
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- 28% – Percentage of individuals in a recent study who were charged additional fines and fees when they were unable to pay previous court or incarceration-related fines and fees. Additionally, 24 percent reported having their driver’s licenses suspended and 19 percent reported serving time in jail because they did not pay their fine and fee obligations. [Tax Policy Center]
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- 644 – The governor this week set the SQ 832 election date for June 16, 2026, which is 644 days away from the executive order that established the election date. SQ 832 would raise the state’s minimum wage incrementally to $15 per hour by 2029. This 21-month span between the governor announcing the election date and the election itself is more than six times longer than the median time (96 days) for all other state question elections during the last 10 years. [OK Policy]
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- 20.8% – New Census data show Oklahoma’s poverty rate for children in 2023 was 20.8%, which is the nation’s seventh highest rate. Oklahoma’s poverty rate for children increased a full percentage point when compared to 2022. [U.S. Census via OK Policy]
What We’re Reading
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- Food Insecurity Rises for the Second Year in a Row: Food insecurity increased in 2023, from 12.8 percent in 2022 to 13.5 percent in 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest food insecurity report finds. Food insecurity has risen two years in a row, reversing a downward trend; food insecurity rates had fallen to a two-decade low in 2021, when significant relief measures, such as expanded food assistance benefits and an expanded Child Tax Credit, were in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rise in food hardship shows that Congress should protect and improve upon policies that help families afford a healthy diet. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
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- Most minimum wage studies have found little or no job loss: A new review finds that most minimum wage studies find no job losses or only small disemployment effects. In other words, the vast majority of minimum wage research implies that minimum wage policies have unambiguously raised the total earnings of low-wage workers. [Economic Policy Institute]
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- How fines and fees impact family well-being: Fines and fees, imposed at every level of the criminal legal system, significantly affect the well-being of families. Their analysis found that one in six adults reported their households incurred fines and fees, primarily from traffic and parking tickets. Those with court or incarceration-related fines faced higher charges, greater financial strain, and a higher likelihood of adverse consequences for being unable to pay. [Tax Policy Center]
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- State Earned Income Tax Credits Support Families and Workers in 2024: Proven and effective income supports (like Earned Income Tax Credits) are more important than ever. Too many workers face low and slow-growing wages while simultaneously facing high costs for housing, child care, and other basic household expenses. In 41 states, low-income households also pay a higher share of their incomes in state and local taxes than the richest households. This leaves working families with even fewer resources to make ends meet and contributes to income and wealth inequality. Creating or expanding a state EITC can counteract this inequity in state tax codes. [Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy]
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- How many are in need in the US? The poverty rate is the tip of the iceberg: The poverty level—and the corresponding poverty rate—is a woefully incomplete measure of economic need. A much more relevant benchmark is the cost of a basket of basic necessities. So how many families can afford basic necessities in the U.S.? The sad answer is that for a shockingly high proportion of families, total family resources do not cover the expenses for these necessities. And that proportion rises significantly for families of color. [Brookings]
