OKLAHOMA CITY – Legislation that would have required an “independent third party” to conduct a “forensic audit” of the general election that took place a year and a half ago, on November 3, 2020, was dead on arrival in the state Senate.
Senate Bill 1690 did not define the term “forensic audit.”
“State law does not authorize ‘forensic audits,’” State Election Board Public Information Officer Misha Mohr told Southwest Ledger earlier this year. “It’s not a term we use, so we’re not exactly sure what it means or what it entails.”
SB 1690, by Sen. Nathan Dahm (R-Broken Arrow) died in the Senate Rules Committee.
“There is no controversy surrounding the 2020 General Election in Oklahoma” and “no credible suspicion or evidence of pervasive fraud in this state,” State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax noted last July when another legislator requested a “forensic and independent” audit of the 2020 general election. Evidence suggests that voter suppression is “virtually nonexistent in our state,” Ziriax wrote.
A total of 49 instances of alleged voter irregularities in 14 counties occurred during the 2020 general election, and were reported to the State Election Board.
Those included a case in Comanche County in which an absentee ballot was submitted after the voter’s death. The violator was charged with a misdemeanor, admitted guilt and paid a fine.
Payne County reported two cases in which absentee ballots were returned by persons other than the voters themselves, contrary to state law. And in Haskell County, a mother refused to vote independently of her daughter and became disruptive, poll workers reported.
Elsewhere in the state, Oklahoma County reported 19 cases of voter “fraud;” Tulsa County, eight cases; Pittsburg and Muskogee counties, four cases each; Cleveland, Delaware and Okmulgee counties, two cases each; and Grady, Mayes, Osage and Sequoyah counties, one case each.
“All of these alleged crimes involved voters who voted twice, unless otherwise noted,” Mohr said. “I should also add that many times, alleged ‘double voters’ are elderly citizens who don’t remember submitting their absentee ballots and show up at the polls on Election Day to vote.”
The Presidential race received the most votes in the 2020 general election: 1,560,699 votes in Oklahoma. Those 49 irregularities constituted .0031% of the total votes cast in that race – 31 ten-thousandths of 1 percent.
Then-President Trump received 65.37% of the Oklahoma vote in his bid for re-election; Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, 62.9%; Republican Congressman Kevin Hern, 63.7%; Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin, 75%; Republican Rep. Frank Lucas, 78.5%; Republican Congressman Tom Cole, 67.8%; Republican Stephanie Bice bested Democrat incumbent District 5 Rep. Kendra Horn, 52% to 48%; and Republican Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett won re-election with 76.1% of the statewide vote.