Date for federal court’s ruling still uncertain
OKLAHOMA CITY – It remained unclear Wednesday what the latest possible date might be for the federal court in Tulsa to rule – prior to the June 30 statewide primary election – on the lawsuit that Democrats filed challenging Oklahoma’s statutes governing absentee ballots.
A telephone call the Ledger placed Wednesday morning to State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax was immediately routed to his spokeswoman, Misha Moore. A subsequent Ledger call was placed to Ms. Moore, whose voice mailbox was jammed full.
The issue is significant because the ballots for the primary have already been printed, and explanatory material typically is mailed along with the ballot, said Scott Hamilton, executive director of the Oklahoma Democratic Party.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the state Democratic Party filed suit in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court on May 18 against Ziriax and the three-member State Election Board, who were given 21 days to respond.
The defendants were sued to prevent enforcement of “several burdensome restrictions and procedures that threaten to deny countless of the State’s lawful, eligible voters” the constitutional right to vote and to have their ballots counted, the plaintiffs allege.
Democrats want the court to:
• prohibit the Election Board from rejecting absentee ballots that are not in compliance with a newly enacted “notarization/witness/ photo ID” requirement “so long as the voter has signed his or her ballot affidavit” under penalty of perjury.
• forbid the Election Board from rejecting ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at their respective county election board within seven days.
Voters can request an absentee ballot up until 5 p.m. on the Wednesday before the election, but Oklahoma rejects absentee ballots unless they are received by the secretary of each county election board by 7 p.m. on Election Day – regardless of when the voter first received the ballot from elections officials, regardless of when the voter actually mailed it back, or regardless of when the ballot was postmarked, Democrats note.
• require the Election Board to provide prepaid postage on all absentee ballots. Oklahoma’s requirement that voters pay for postage in order to vote absentee “imposes an unconstitutional poll tax in violation of the 24th Amendment,” the Democrats allege.
Unless the court strikes down the measures the State of Oklahoma has imposed for voting absentee, “these barriers will force voters to choose between their health and the health and safety of their community on the one hand, and their fundamental right to vote on the other,” the plaintiffs allege.
“[M]ere statutory access to voting absentee is not sufficient to protect voters’ constitutional rights in the face of this pandemic,” the Democrats contend. “As the U.S. Supreme Court said” in a 1964 case, “There is more to the right to vote than the right to mark a piece of paper and drop it in a box or the right to pull a lever in a voting booth. The right to vote includes the right to have the ballot counted.”