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Take A POLL And Comment – What Will Be The Topic Of Dark Money Mailers Against HD36 Candidate Jenni White?

Because I’ve written extensively on Dark Money in Oklahoma elections, it felt like a truly amusing way to pass what little free time we all have left as we try and navigate today’s skyrocketing inflation, making up titles and concepts for the Dark Money mailers sure to inundate our mailboxes right before the June 16th Primary Election.

But first, let’s take a poll:

Maybe some of our political consulting friends will opt in to the poll!

Here’s a clip of the ROPE Report podcast from Wednesday, May 6th, where Michael and I had fun making jokes about this very thing:

So, if you’d like to join in on the fun, make sure to drop YOUR idea for a dark money mailer against Jenni in the comments below! (PS: please make them clean, funny and not gross or mean – we’re just having fun here!)

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Election Bills To Support And Oppose – Oklahoma Legislative Session 2025

This list was composed by Wendi Montgomery Dial and published to her Restore Liberty Substack. You can find the whole piece here. Not all information from her Substack is reproduced here, just the basic information, so please go read for more information.

Bills that should not be passed:

HB 1116, Stewart. This bill would introduce automatic voter registration upon renewal of a driver’s license. It would also automatically register minors as soon as they receive their adult driver’s license at 18.

SB 1086, Gollihare. This bill restricts public access to voter registration rolls. This would make election integrity efforts much harder. 

SB 129, Kirt. This bill would increase the days of in person absentee voting to 14 calendar days. The goal in order to achieve secure elections is to have all elections conducted on one day, Election Day, as the US Constitution requires. Rating? Ugly.

SB 214, Goodwin. This bill changes the date of special elections and forces the governor to make the call for a special election within a specific time frame. This also takes State questions out of the general elections where they would have more votes and puts them in a special election where they would have little attention and very little participation, a hypothetical election manipulator’s dream scenario. 

SB 273, Boren. This bill would add 2 days to Early Voting and also add polling places for the practice, 1 polling place for every 15,000 voters. This also adds local law enforcement to the sheriff’s duties carried out during elections.

SB 147, Pederson. This bill mandates post election audits after each elections. The parameters of these audits would be determined by the State Election Board. Currently Oklahoma conducts risk limiting audits randomly after elections. 

SB 654, Paxton. This bill removes notarizing too many ballots from the definition of ballot harvesting, a felony, plus makes it far more difficult to prosecute a notary for breaking the law and notarizing over twenty ballots by introducing language regarding intent. This renders Oklahoma law against a notary witnessing over 20 ballots per election essentially useless. Rating? Ugly.

HB 1985, Ranson. This bill would make straight party voting illegal and require voters to fill out their individual choices for all ballot races and measures. 

SB 962, Haste. This bill increases fees for all recounts of elections. There would be penalties if irregularities are not proven in a court of law to a judge. 

SB 525, Boren. This bill would add unelected members of law enforcement to the process of securing elections and provide training for those officers.

HB 1010, Jenkins. This bill would charge a political party for all costs of the state for their candidates being on the ballot of a primary election IF the delegates to the party’s national convention cast their votes for someone other than the candidate who received the vote of the state. Rating? Bad.

Bills that should be passed or that will enhance election security:

HB1151, Banning. This bill moves school board elections to existing primary and general election dates. It also changes the terms to four years for all school board members. 

SB 834, Bullard. This bill prohibits open and jungle primaries in Oklahoma with penalties that include voiding the elections that are held with an open primary. Rating? Good.

HB1120, Lepak. This bill would prohibit the Secretary of the State Election Board or any other county secretary of an election board from implementing any new federal guidance or directives without the prior approval from the State Legislature.

SB 652, Paxton. This bill restricts the calendar dates that a special election may be called. 

SB 659, Deevers. This bill would require that state agencies verify US citizenship and Oklahoma residency of anyone before giving them voter registration materials. This bill contains a penalty of a fine not to exceed $5,000 and sets the violation at a misdemeanor. Rating? Good.

SB 536, Howard. This is a bill related to the duties of the assistant secretary of the county election board and adds to the provisions of that role.

HB 2191, Wolfley. This bill would require notaries to turn over their logs as public record if they apply for an exemption to be able to lawfully notarize more than 20 ballots in any election.

SB 1116, Sacchieri. This bill would require any State Question or proposal sent to voters to include conspicuous language if the passage of the proposal would result in a tax increase on the citizens. Rating? Good.

SB 990, Coleman. This is a bill that establishes a mechanism for recall elections in statewide races in Oklahoma. 

SB 735, Deevers. This bill sets up a requirement for each county election board secretary to submit annually a report to the state election board, as well as a requirement for the state election board to report to the legislature and governor, of their efforts to maintain the voter registration rolls of the state.

HB 1005, Olsen. This bill would require Service Oklahoma to develop a photo ID voter registration card that would be offered free to certain registered voters.

HB 1007, Olsen. This bill would not allow an ID issued by an educational institution to be used as a valid form of identification to vote.

Revision

SB953, Deevers. This is a bill that creates the Election Integrity Enforcement Act which authorizes District Attorneys to initiate civil actions on behalf of voters within their respective judicial districts in cases of alleged election irregularities or fraud. Rating? Excellent.

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Election Integrity Tips For 2024 Voters

Today on the podcast, we had Oklahoma election integrity watchdogs, Amber Evans and Wendi Montgomery Dial. They talked about what kind of things should and SHOULDN’T happen at the polls when you’re voting and what to do if you see something or have questions.

Please find the full video on Rumble and YouTube – it was about an hour and a half with some pretty good laughs at the end, so you might want to stay tuned for the whole thing! Just sayin’…

In the video below, Wendi talks specifically about what could happen at the polls that would warrant a call to your county sheriff. Please, take note of these specifically.

Below is the slide with the numbers of all the county Sheriffs. If you can’t read that, please click here for an article from Oklahoma Grassroots that contains the slide in a downloadable format. That way you can enlarge it as needed.

One last thing that we forgot to talk about.

At least two people have reached out to Wendi to ask why it is that there are names of individuals printed under the Trump/Vance presidential voting section on their ballot. Check out her blog here, but suffice it to say, in our electoral system of voting, while we individuals go to the polls, seven electors are chosen from state Republicans to cast their vote FOR you FOR Trump/Vance. These are the names underneath the Trump and Vance names on the ballot – Oklahoma’s seven Trump/Vance electors.

In closing, I want to encourage you, but also admonish you. Voting for Trump isn’t going to fix all the problems we’ve built up in America today – it’s a great start – but as we talk about below, what’s arguably more important is what’s right under your feet.

The Oklahoma Title 26 laws respective to VOTING can be found here. Click the arrow on the right hand side to advance the slides.

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What To Do If You See Something That Makes You Uncomfortable When You Vote

The following was put together by Wendi Montgomery Dial and published here on Oklahoma Grassroots. Wendi and Amber Evans will be on our podcast, Friday, November 1st at 9am live on our Rumble, YouTube, Facebook and LinkdIn channels to talk about this very thing! TUNE IN!

OKLAHOMA ELECTION INTEGRITY CHECK LIST

Send all irregularities by photo, video, or written file or affidavit to wendidial@protonmail.com

  1. Look for your county election board’s meeting to open and count absentee ballots. Make sure you attend that meeting and DOCUMENT THE PROCESS. Take notes, videos, etc. Familiarize yourself with Title 26 as it relates to absentee ballot voting counting and take the statute with you. Find it here beginning on page 172.  http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/OK_Statutes/CompleteTitles/os26.pdf
  2. Ask for the list of Absentee Ballot voters from your county election board before you leave. They must give this to you upon request and it will likely come on a CD ROM.
  3. Gain access to the Election Data Warehouse by filling out the request form here https://data.okelections.gov/Home/GetPdf . It’s free and you may have access for one year once approved.  Download the files for the voter registration records, Absentee ballot requests, voter history, and the deleted voter files. These records change daily, so download several times a week. Watch for deleted files to be put back into the system or other problems. Report to your county election board if you find issues in your county, then the state election board if the county doesn’t address the problems. Send a report of the issues to the above email address.
  4. On election day, document your visit to your polling place. Record any report that you get from friends or family about unusual activities at their polling places. Take notes, videos, etc.
  5. Check available wifi connections and screenshot all of them that populate your phone directly outside the polling place. Pay special attention to the ATT connections that WILL show up.
  6. ASK HOW MANY TOTAL VOTERS HAVE COME THROUGH THAT DAY and keep track of how many scan their ballots before you reach the machine. If you are Speedy Gonzales filling out your ballot (if you are older than 30 you should know who that is), the number you’ve been given at the table won’t match the number on the machine. Check the number of ballots that have been run through the machine and make sure it closely matches how many total voters you have been told have come through. The numbers shouldn’t be off by more than the number of voting stalls in the polling place. If they are, then there’s potentially been extra ballots run through the machine.
  7. TAKE A PHOTO OF YOUR BALLOT AND/OR VIDEO OF YOU SCANNING IT INTO THE MACHINE. THIS IS YOUR PROOF YOU VOTED AND HOW YOU VOTED IN CASE YOUR VOTER HISTORY IN THE POLLING BOOKS ‘GETS LOST’ OR IS NEVER POPULATED INTO YOUR HISTORY. OR, HEAVEN FORBID, OUR ELECTION BOARD’S DATA GETS WIPED.
  8. If you vote straight party, still FILL OUT EVERY RACE INDIVIDUALLY.
  9. IF THE MACHINES GO DOWN DO NOT LEAVE!!! STAY UNTIL THE MACHINE IS FIXED AND NEVER GIVE YOUR BALLOT TO ANYONE TO SCAN FOR YOU.
  10. WHEN TO CALL YOUR COUNTY SHERIFF – first, have the number to your sheriff’s department number in your phone. Then DO NOT LEAVE until you have filed a report with a deputy and find out how to get a copy of it. Please send a copy of any report filed to the email address above. IF YOU HAVE TO CALL THE SHERIFF, please text 405-207-7709 and report the situation to that number, please. Do not call it. I won’t answer phone calls on Election Day except for people in my contact list. Thanks for understanding. Call the sheriff’s department if:
  1. Told you already voted
    1. Polls Closed Early
    1. Unable to Cast Ballot
    1. Denied Access To Vote
    1. Claim You Aren’t Registered
    1. Witness Illegal Activity
    1. Told They Ran Out of Ballots
    1. Observers Are Kicked Out
    1. Political Intimidation
    1. Forced to Vote Provisional
    1. Major System Malfunctions
  1. Call your local County DA’s office after you file the report with the Sheriff. If the Sheriff refuses to come and fill out a report REPORT THAT IMMEDIATELY to your local DA’s office and then by text to the phone number above.
  2. Download election results from the state website all night on election night here https://oklahoma.gov/elections/elections-results/election-results.html . Try to catch every update.
  3. Watch your voter history and document it daily. Take screenshots and watch for unusual changes in the records for the next SEVERAL weeks. Check it like you do your news feed in the morning. okvoterportal.okelections.gov/. Document any changes and send to the email address above.
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All About What’s On The Ballot In Oklahoma, November 5th, 2024

Michael and I took some time this morning to go over the ballot and introduce people to various websites and articles that could help them become informed voters.

We had a LOT OF VIEWERS and a whole lot of COMMENTS which were great! We thank everyone for participating so very much!

Find the full video on our YouTube and Rumble pages, but here’s a short clip about helping our elderly family members, friends and neighbors to vote…

Here is the list of all the sources we used on the show today. Check them out – heck, check them ALL out! But the bottom line is SHARE, SHARE, SHARE!

We talked about this numerous times on the live show today. Just because a group is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get three justices tossed out of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, check them out yourselves, don’t just vote for them because of ads that tell you they’re horrible liberals. They may be, but CHECK IT OUT YOURSELF. We’ve got to stop believing people just because we believe they’re good people or have our best interests at heart. Usually, there’s money involved somewhere and THAT’s where the heart of the interest lies – even if it’s Republican-led!

VOTER GUIDES

Oklahoma Voter Guide

Batesline – 2024 Judicial Retention Ballot

Oklahomans For Health And Parental Rights voter guide

Oklahoma Second Amendment Association voter guide

Supreme Court Justices; KarminGrider.com

OK Grassroots Voter Guide

Jake A. Merrick

Reasons why you should VOTE NO on SQ833:

Rejecting Oklahoma SQ 833 – The Case Against Public Infrastructure Districts (PIDs)

State Question 833 (SQ 833) introduces Public Infrastructure Districts (PIDs), giving developers significant control over infrastructure financing at taxpayers’ expense. Here’s why voters should say “No” to SQ 833.

1. PIDs Burden Taxpayers with Long-Term Costs

               •             PIDs allow developers to shift infrastructure costs onto property owners through special property taxes that can last for decades, even after developers have profited and moved on.

2. Developer Influence on Local Politics by Shifting Power to Special Interests

               •             Similar to Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts, PIDs give developers leverage over local governance. This opens the door to political favoritism, where developers can game the system to gain tax advantages and special treatment.

3. Loss of Transparency and Oversight through Complex Bureaucracy

               •             PIDs add layers of government bureaucracy with minimal public input, making oversight difficult. The lack of clear rules for dissolving PIDs and vague governance structures risk unchecked developer control.

4. Lessons in Increased Corruption from Failed TIF Districts

               •             TIFs have already shown how developers can influence local elections and bend policies to suit their interests. PIDs will likely worsen this, embedding special interests deeper into local government.

5. Threat to Simple, Accountable Government by Erosion of the Free-Market

               •             PIDs bypass traditional free-market practices, allowing government-backed financing that distorts genuine market demand and punishes developers who play by the rules.

6. Legislators Who Voted “No” on PID Legislation (SJR 16) in the 2024 Oklahoma Session

These legislators advocated for a simpler, transparent government structure that serves taxpayers, not special interests:

Senate: Nathan Dahm (R-Broken Arrow); Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin); Shane Jett (R-Shawnee); Warren Hamilton (R-McCurtain)

Oklahoma House of Representatives: David Banning (R-Bixby); Tom Gann (R-Inola); Jim Olsen (R-Roland)

7. Vote “No” to Protect Taxpayers, Keep Government Accountable, and Reject Special-Interest Schemes

               •             Voting “No” on SQ 833 keeps taxpayers from carrying the financial weight of risky, developer-driven districts and supports transparent, free-market governance.

SQ 833 is a handout to developers, enabling costly, complex government-backed districts.

Voting “No” preserves a simpler, fairer government structure that works for taxpayers—not special interests.

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Governor Stitt’s Work Permits/Visa Task Force Recommendations Aren’t Republican, Are Dangerous, And Will BLUE The State

Our podcast guests Friday, October 18th, were two Oklahoman citizens of Hispanic descent who talked with Michael and I about Governor Stitt’s Work Permits and Visa Task Force recommendations.

IT WAS A VERY EYE-OPENING podcast.

Due to scheduling issues, Camilo Ulloa and Jessica Perez joined the live podcast via a recorded interview Michael and I did with them the Tuesday before.

Camilo (who goes by Cam) was born in Columbia and emigrated here with his parents when he was 7. Jessica was born in Arizona, near the Arizona/Mexico border. Her mom was adopted from Mexico as a child. Cam is employed with the military in Oklahoma and Jessica is employed with a well-known non-profit, also here in Oklahoma.

Both Cam and Jessica are appointed members of the Governor’s Hispanic Council. We talk about that in the full video and it’s worth just that topic alone to watch the entire podcast, but I’ll say just this; neither Jessica nor Cam were appointed to the Task Force and as part of the Hispanic Council, they were not tapped for their views on the topic.

It’s also important to point out here that Cam and Jessica are both Oklahoma Republicans. Cam has been so active in the party that it’s a rare Republican who hasn’t at least met him at a party function.

Cam and I have been talking about the Governor’s Task Force since my article on its creation and after a quick video Michael and I did on the Task Force’s recommendations. He reached out with numerous insights that I hadn’t heard in the press, so I asked him to come on and talk about them. Since Jessica serves with him on the Governor’s Hispanic Council, Cam suggested she come too.

Of course, one of the topics discussed was the Task Force’s plan to provide – no joke – Driver’s Privilege Cards to non-citizens. Here’s Jessica talking about SOME of the problems this would cause.

Here is the link to the article I mentioned in the video, but it wouldn’t matter if I gave you this particular one or not. You could find a million of them if you search, “illegals driving”. Seriously, we should all call out Lt. Col. Joe Williams, designee of the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety for having zero clue about what constitutes PUBLIC SAFETY.

I scoured the section of the recommendations under the heading “The Task Force recommends issuing Driving Privilege Cards to qualifying non-citizens to address public safety concerns” and couldn’t find a single place in which they said that the ‘non-citizens’ getting these cards would be TESTED like regular Oklahoma citizens are, TO DRIVE. That’s honestly outrageous.

But that’s not all, listen to both Jessica and Cam talk about what happens when we give non-citizens the same rights as citizens. Our state gets BLUER!

And this was just a clip. In the full video (found here on YouTube and Rumble), we talked about the fact that there is very little way that this Task Force is talking about any other than non-documented citizens – those coming across the border – not the ones already here, or coming here, with Visas to work.

People who hire foreign workers – like those they seem to be talking about in the recommendations on H1B Visas – do so directly. A worker here on an H1B Visa doesn’t just ‘show up’ for work – they have to be recommended by their employer to work for them, or they have to be sponsored by a church or another sponsoring organization. These pathways are already well-known and well-used by Oklahoma employers.

It may seem nuts for Jessica to say that the majority of undocumented people can’t even read in their own language before entering the country (making them a HUGE liability in every way – including public schools!), but I found a study done in 2017 – before it became racist to say “illegal immigrant” – which clearly shows that English literacy hovered around 40% for immigrants. With our own student scores now at 49th in the nation, how could we expect anything different for those coming to this country – especially those coming illegally?

Since the Biden/Harris Administration’ open borders policies, child sex trafficking has more than TRIPLED. Do we think this will get better with illegals acting like citizens because they have a card that lets them drive? That just opens up a whole new world of TRAFFICKING via – legal driving!

Bottom line, NOTHING THE GOVERNOR’S TASK FORCE RECOMMENDED SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS POLICY IN 2025. The recommendations grows government, is a joke to public safety and doesn’t address the fact that most skilled workers coming here to work already have a path to that job without Oklahoma getting involved.

I urge you to read the Task Force recommendations for yourself, but my favorite is where they invoke the 10th Amendment as a way to give illegals ‘driver’s cards’. Why don’t we do that instead of accepting every dadgum federal dollar that comes down the pike? What the HECK is going on in Oklahoma? Wake up people, at this point Oklahoma is only ‘red’ because of it’s copiously bleeding values.

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Observations From An Alternate Oklahoma County Election Board Member Regarding Oklahoma County Election Procedure

Jenni White

May 2023, the Chairman of Oklahoma County Republican Party (Ken Warner) had the opportunity to appoint a Republican member (Cheryl Williams) and alternate member (me) to the Oklahoma County Election Board.  Since that time, both Cheryl and I have relayed questions to both Warner and Election Board officials regarding OK CO Election Board procedure.

Since September 6th, when Cheryl and I attended a mandatory Election Board meeting, I’ve had various questions that – both Cheryl and I – have asked election officials and legislators without getting answers to solve the issues as I’d hoped. 

December 11th, 2023, Governor Stitt signed an Executive Order (2023-29) creating the Task Force on Campaign Finance and Election Threats which is authorized until March 31st, 2024. While I am grateful and hopeful for government oversight into these matters, I also believe that the public should be aware of my observations (and suggestions) for the Oklahoma County Election Board as well as those I’ve previously published regarding Dark Money (campaign finance). What follows is a description of several issues I’ve witnessed over the course of my time participating as an Oklahoma County Election Board alternate.

Friday, December 15th, 2023, Cheryl Williams (Vice-Chairman) of the 3-person Oklahoma County Election Board (comprised of a Republican, a Democrat – Chairman, David Glover – and the Secretary of the Oklahoma County Election Board, Doug Sanderson) voted against certification of the December 12th election which would choose a general election candidate to replace Ryan Martinez, the House Representative for district 39, and a sales tax to build a sports arena in downtown Oklahoma City.

At issue is the prescription of Oklahoma Administrative Code (OAC) and Oklahoma law, versus OK CO Election Board procedure as outlined in these observations.

According to State Law (26-14-125) absentee ballots must be counted on the day of election (OAC 230:30-19-3).

26-14-125 C. 1. Says that, “Upon written approval by the Secretary of the State Election Board, the county election board may begin the process of counting absentee ballots as described in this section on a date earlier than the day of the election.”

Absentee ballot counting began Monday, December 11th. Neither Glover nor Williams were presented with evidence of authorization for early counting at that time.  After Williams directed an email to OK State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax after the meeting questioning this issue, a letter from Ziriax to OK CO Election Board Secretary, Doug Sanderson, dated December 12th, was provided to Williams and Glover Friday, December 15th.

This letter indicated that Ziriax had received a letter dated 10-25-23 from Sanderson requesting an earlier counting date for the December 12th election, but that letter had contained a typographical error resulting in lack of approval for absentee ballot counting on the 11th. 

Ziriax’ letter to Sanderson contained an amended authorization for the 11th, as “the best resolution for ensuring a proper count of absentee ballots received in Oklahoma County and so that the transfer cases containing those ballots are not disturbed.”

According to OAC 230:30-19-4, Procedure for counting absentee ballots on election day, 230:30-19-4 (5), “The Secretary shall assign an employee of the County Election Board to each voting device or high-speed scanner to be used to count the absentee ballots.  The County Election Board Chairman and Vice Chairman shall be present and shall observe the counting process.”

Neither Glover nor Cheryl were able to observe any of the counting process in person.  Both members were confined to a public room the entire time absentee ballots were being handled and counted and were required to watch the entire procedure on a closed-circuit television also made available for any members of the public attending the meeting.

The only member of the 3-person OK CO Election Board present in the room to observe all absentee ballot processing and counting procedure was Secretary Sanderson.  Unfortunately, many times Sanderson was out of range of the CCTV handling absentee ballots, making direct observation by Glover, Williams and the public impossible. In fact, neither Williams or Glover were able to see the absentee ballot ‘box’ (a large rollaway garbage can with 3 locks on it – 1 kept by Glover, 1 kept by Cheryl and 1 kept by Sanderson) being opened, nor the ballots being counted.

Glover and Williams were allowed to examine absentee affidavit ballot envelopes (12.11.23).  These were brought into them by OK CO Election Board staff and split between Glover and Williams. Both checked the affidavits for the ballots in each of their piles, but there was no cross-check performed.

OAC 230:30-11-3 says, “If the County Election Board meets prior to election day to open outer envelopes as outlined in 230:30-11-2 [revoked](?), it is permissible for the Board members also to open and remove affidavit envelopes that are determined to be executed properly.  Upon removing the affidavits, the Board members shall place the ballot envelopes in a ballot box of the type described in 230:30-7-8(b) and shall lock the box…. Additionally, the Board members shall affix a long, white State Election Board seal across the opening on the top of the box so that the opening is entirely obstructed.  The County Election Board members each shall sign and date the seal.  Each member of the County Election Board shall retain the key to only one of the locks on the ballot box.  The Secretary shall store the ballot box in a secure place until it is time to count absentee ballots on election day.”

According to OAC 230:-19-4 (10), the employee operating the voting (counting) device is to put the [absentee] ballots in a transfer case and that case is to be sealed with a State Election Board seal [tape] to be signed by the person who operated the voting device and all County Election Board members. 

These seals [tapes] were brought into the room with Glover and Williams for their signature, however, neither member saw either the box, or the contents of the box – just the seal [tape].  

Election Monday (12.11.23), I emailed a formal complaint to the State Election Board, explaining the procedure I had witnessed that Monday and what I had observed during the Jones school bond election held the previous November 14th.  I also asked Secretary Ziriax to direct a member of the Oklahoma State Election Board to observe the next two meetings of the OK CO Election Board due to the concerns detailed in my complaint.  Unfortunately, no State Board Member was present for either the 12.12 or 12.15 OK CO Election Board meetings as requested.

According to OAC 230:35-3-84, “The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the County Election Board, the Secretary or employees of the Board may be involved in reception of voting devices, election supplies, and ballot transfer cases from Inspectors.”

OAC 230:35-3-91 (a) says, “On election night, the County Election Board shall canvas the precinct and absentee results for all elections including elections for which the county is an affected county.”

During the Jones election, neither Glover nor Williams were able to leave the “public” room to witness – or receive – any of the incoming precinct materials.  Neither were they allowed to witness, or review (canvas) any of the election materials during or after processing by Oklahoma County Election Board staff.

Tuesday morning (10:10am), December 12th, Cheryl Williams had car trouble so I sat on the Board as the member. Glover and I were asked to “accept and process” 32 absentee ballots.  Both Glover and I were able to check the affidavits on the outer envelopes, but the ballots were removed from us to the counting room after that.

I requested that we be allowed to witness the counting of the absentee ballots as described by OAC 230:30-11-3 and was denied by Sanderson and Deputy Secretary Tuesday Sanders.  I refused to sign the seal [tape] for the box with the absentee ballots when it was presented to me for my signature because I wasn’t allowed to observe the counting of the ballots or see the ballots being placed in the box.  At one point, I even asked the Sheriff’s Deputy in the room to ask Secretary Sanderson to follow the law and was told, “I’m only an observer”.  Consequently, I abstained from the vote to “accept and process thirty-two (32) absentee ballots”.  It makes no sense that I should sign something saying I’ve seen something when I absolutely had not.

Secretary Sanderson takes the minutes of the meeting.  Unfortunately, none of my concerns were noted in the minutes of the December 12th meeting, nor was there an auditory recording of the meeting made by the OK CO Election Board.

Tuesday evening (6:47pm), the Election Board assembled to canvas the ballots for that day’s elections. I stayed on the Board again that evening for Cheryl. At 7:36pm the meeting was recessed, and Deputy Sanders took Glover and I on a tour of the building to witness election night procedure. Sanders answered numerous questions I had and was extremely pleasant. The tour was very helpful in understanding the process. The meeting was then called back to order at 8:06pm.

At this time, Glover and I were allowed to observe the election machine tapes from each precinct involved in each election – something I had asked to do after the Jones elections where neither Glover nor Cheryl were given any evidence of the election other than the absentee affidavits.  David and I spot-checked tapes for accuracy – which was 100% – and I checked the tapes against the precinct list provided by Deputy Sanders.

I found that 10 precincts had 2 tapes (not all of which were spot-checked for accuracy) so I alerted Deputy Sanders who said that she would have to wait until all tapes had been numerically assembled at the end of the night to investigate this issue.  I also had no record of a tape for 1 precinct in the Edmond HD39 election.  (Friday, December 15th, Sanders informed me that she could not find two tapes for any precinct and that another tape included in the results for which there was no precinct, was indeed a ‘training’ tape that had been mistakenly included by the precinct officials.  This information was also not included in the meeting minutes of the 12th.)

Cheryl was in her seat on the OK CO Election Board Friday night, December 15th when the results from the December 12th elections were to be certified.  Because of the concerns enumerated above, Williams voted “no” to certify results and refused to sign any paperwork regarding election certification.

At this point in time Cheryl and I are asking for the following concerns to be addressed by state lawmakers and the OK CO Election Board:

  1. Oklahoma Administrative Code and Oklahoma Law both refer to the “Oklahoma County Election Board” often as both the office and the 3-member board.  This is very confusing and needs to be made more specific in both law and code. Those hired by the Oklahoma County Election Board to help administrate an election have different duties than those appointed to the 3-person Oklahoma County Election Board and these duties should be specifically identified in both law and code.
  2. The 3-member Election Board needs to become a 5 or 7-member board for several reasons:
    • If two Board members are together in the room, it constitutes a meeting according to the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act (25:304.2). This fact has been used to dampen transparency in several meetings I’ve attended as Secretary Sanderson has refused to answer public questions either during the meeting or after the meeting has been adjourned citing this particular issue.
    • It takes only two Board members to certify an election and one is the Secretary of the OK CO Election Board.  If one party has questions or concerns, those are negated by the Secretary and the other party’s appointee.  This can also dampen transparency and lead to concerns of partisanship in elections.  Adding voters of other parties, such as Independent voters, by random drawing of interested voters could stimulate transparency by putting more eyes on the process.
  3. The Secretary of the OK CO Election Board is a voting member of the Board but should be relegated to a position of information for the Board and not a voting member for the reason listed in 2b.
  4. There should be a meeting Secretary assigned to meetings of the Board and the meetings should be recorded via audio.
    • Secretary Sanderson conducts the meeting, writes the minutes of the meeting and performs his duties as Secretary during elections.
    • Minutes of the meetings are often incomplete as mentioned above.  Transparency hinges not only on proper procedure, but accurate and effective communication with the public.
  5. The OK CO Election Board must follow the law as it is written in Title 25 of the Oklahoma Statutes and Title 230 of the Oklahoma Administrative Code.  Neither Cheryl nor I believe that the OK CO Election Board is following the OAC regarding Absentee voting.

I know that Cheryl and I are both willing to work with the OK CO Election Board in whatever way necessary to perform our Board duties, but are united together in the requirement that the OK CO Election Board be transparent in their actions and follow all pertinent State Law and Oklahoma Administrative Code in the performance of their required duties.

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HD39 ‘Push’ Poll Libels Candidate Peterson By Messaging Voters, Claiming That She’d Been Fired

In the now on-going saga of candidate Ronda Peterson running for a seat in HD39, I received a text message after yesterday’s article publication from Peterson, who sent me a screenshot of a candidate ‘push’ poll she received from a friend dated November 27th.

Here are a couple screenshots Peterson took of the poll.

NOTE: This text says “Ronda Peterson WAS removed…” from her position, but it does NOT SAY from what school system she was fired. This kind of a poll hopes to trap uneducated voters into NOT paying attention to the fact that the name of the school from which Ronda was presumably fired IS NOT LISTED, hoping that readers will tend to believe it’s the school where she is currently employed. As the Ballotpedia definition for push polling points out, this is VERY, VERY bad stuff.

Here’s why:

Yup, not only did someone BELIEVE the lie in the push poll, that person in turn SPREAD THE LIE on her Facebook page (and most probably other places) to influence other people about her candidacy.

Ronda asked Edmond Public Schools Administration to make a public statement – not on her behalf as a candidate – but about her employment status. Though Peterson has been employed with Edmond Public Schools for 22 years, she was refused on grounds that EPS policy prevents them from commenting on an employee’s employment status.

She also tried to expose the lie of the poll by taking a picture of herself on her bus with a paper showing the current date – which she posted to her Facebook page – but that was about all she could do to tamp down the nonsense.

So…is push polling legal? What about the fact that it libeled Peterson?

Yes, push polling is legal, and many people use it in political campaigns to try and ‘push’ their candidate – and not just political consultants. In fact, ANYONE could do a push poll, so where this particular libelous push poll came from is a complete mystery without some kind of lead back to the company from which it was generated. The phone number used for this poll has a DC area code and is probably Google in origin – there’s no way to tell without paying a reverse look-up service and even then the odds aren’t great of actually determining anything. The “State Election Research” title comes up in no internet search I performed, so it’s likely just a phrase used as an appeal to authority – again, to influence unsuspecting voters.

Libel on the other hand is illegal – but only if it can be proved in a court of law. Here’s the problem, more than likely it can’t and the legal process to try and prove it is quite expensive.

So what happens to candidates like Peterson who find themselves stuck at the end of this form of campaigning? Nothing. Bupkis. Nada. Zilch. You get the idea.

This gross practice needs to be exposed so voters who want to know what’s going on with the text messages they get – usually unwanted – on their cell phones, can be assured that their spidey senses are right – it’s a practice to try to trick them, not inform them.

But then, this is why I try to expose Dark Money where and when I can. It gives unfair advantage to whomever uses it for their election, by funneling tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of dollars into local races. This kind of money makes it nearly impossible for people who really want to run to help their community but have little means to mount a 100 thousand dollar political campaign, to run and become elected. The Founders of this country envisioned ‘citizen legislators‘ making decisions for the betterment of their states and their country, not people backed by large amounts of cash coming in from outside the district to seat a candidate whose interests then don’t really lie in the district to which he/she was elected.

Unfortunately, today, a large portion of Oklahomans don’t vote – in fact, in 2020, just over half of eligible voters actually voted Oklahoma’s elections – and of those half who do, few take time to really research candidates or issues. Often, these voters get their information from a push poll, a mailer, or an electronic ad and political consultants know that – it makes their job easy.

Consequently, if interested Oklahomans are going to ever see real change in Oklahoma’s elections, PEOPLE IN OKLAHOMA NOT ONLY HAVE TO VOTE – BUT BE INFORMED VOTERS.

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HELP! For Which Judges Should I Vote?

Several judges are up for election on November 8th. Often, people simply vote to retain or don’t vote because they don’t know how to get information to cast an INFORMED vote for judges on the ballot in Oklahoma.

Fortunately several Oklahoma bloggers have compiled some really great information on Oklahoma judges, so I refuse to re-invent the wheel.

Michael Bates of Batesline has very interesting information on judges. I’ve taken a screenshot of the upshot of his blog in the event you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to read the whole blog. (PLEASE DO, HOWEVER. WE NEED TO SUPPORT OKLAHOMA RESEARCHERS AND BLOGGERS!)

Another Oklahoma blogger, Jamison Faught of Muskogee Politico has released not one, but TWO blogs on the topic. Again, I’ve screenshotted his picks, but again, PLEASE VISIT HIS BLOGS.

The one thing I appreciated Michael bringing into the mix is Judge Barbara Swinton’s term on the Seeworth Academy Board during the time that their superintendent was embezzling taxpayer funds. I cannot vote for this woman specifically for that reason.

Now, if you simply can’t take anyone’s word for anything, check out this great website – Courtfacts.org. They have a comprehensive listing of Oklahoma judges on the ballot and information about their backgrounds. This is another source from which you can become more educated, but you can also go to Ballotpedia.org and look at the (bare minimal) information they have on Oklahoma judges.

PLEASE, these positions are much too important to leave blank. READ UP ON THESE JUDGES AND VOTE, NOVEMBER 8th!

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