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Happy first day of Spring Friend!
Spring Break was observed this week in the Capitol, but the Representatives and Senators still heard and debated bills on Monday and Tuesday.
Since this was a short legislative week, there weren’t too many bills heard on the House or Senate floor that the state federation tracks, but one senate bill was passed that could greatly affect the state question process in Oklahoma.
SB 1027 is a bill that would limit the total signatures for petitions which may be gathered from counties of certain sizes, as well as require disclosure for people being paid to gather signatures and sets standards for petition ballot wording.
- The bill passed off the senate floor with a party-line vote of 36 ayes to 8 nays, and the authors of this bill are Sen. David Bullard from Durant, OK and Speaker Kyle Hilbert from Bristow, OK.
- The signature limits refer to only allowing 10% of signatures coming from counties with a population of 400,000 or more, and that no more than 4% shall be from voters of a county with population less than 400,000.
- Oklahoma County and Tulsa County populations account for 1.4 million out of the 4 million Oklahomans. This will require a certain number of signatures to be collected from the other 75 counties before the initiative petition can be eligible for a state question ballot.
The bill is now eligible for the House committee process, so in the coming weeks we will be asking you all to contact your House Representative and ask them to vote no on SB 1027.
If you enjoy these updates or wish to be more engaged with local politics (that affect our jobs and daily lives) there is an opportunity to get more familiar with the State Capitol and your elected officials coming up soon!
On Wednesday April 2nd, 2025, from 9am – 1:30pm Oklahoma Labor is hosting a training, with check-in and breakfast starting at 8:30am at the OK AFL-CIO offices located at 501 NE 27th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73105.
If you’re interested, please click the hyperlink and RSVP today because there is limited space available!