OKLAHOMA CITY – Constraints on the increasing number of marijuana operations in this state, voter registration issues, and a guarantee of freedom to fly the American flag on one’s own property, are among the measures pre-filed for the 2022 session of the Oklahoma Legislature.
The Second Regular Session of the 58th Oklahoma Legislature will start at noon on Feb. 7.
Marijuana Issues
The agricultural sales tax exemption for marijuana operations would be repealed if SB 1101 by Sen. George Burns, R-Pollard, is enacted.
House Bill 2989 by Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell, would require any new application for a commercial marijuana grower’s license to be submitted to a vote of the residents of the county in which the operation would be located. Any marijuana farmer whose application was rejected by a county’s voters would be barred from resubmitting an application in that county for five years.
HB 2987 by Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, would allow municipalities and counties to enact an ordinance or resolution to limit the number of new medical marijuana farms or dispensaries within their confines.
If a city or county declined to enact such an ordinance or resolution, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority would be authorized to issue no more than one new medical marijuana dispensary license and one additional grow facility license within the geographic boundaries of that city or county each calendar year. For a county whose population exceeds 100,000, the OMMA could issue two new MMJ dispensary licenses and two additional grow facility licenses per year.
In just a little over three years since state voters approved medical marijuana in July 2018, Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry had soared by Dec. 9 to 9,398 licensed growers, 2,524 dispensaries, 1,723 processors, and 384,500 patients licensed by the state Health Department to buy and consume marijuana products.
Voter Registration
HB 2975 by Representative Olsen would allow cancellation of a voter’s registration if that voter surrendered his/her driver’s license upon receiving a driver’s license in another state. Other reasons include the motorist’s conviction of a felony crime, judicial determination of mental incapacitation, registering to vote in another state or county, failure to response to confirmation of address mailing and failure to vote within a specified time, the voter’s death or voluntary cancellation of his/her voter registration.
HB 2974, also by Olsen, would require the State Election Board to examine its voter registration database by June 1 each year and determine how many people are registered at the same residential address.
If more than 10 registered voters share a single address, the state board would be mandated to provide a list of those voters to the secretary of the election board in the county where those voters are registered. The county election board secretary, in turn, “shall immediately notify the district attorney for that county,” and the DA or a law enforcement officer “shall investigate any possible criminal violation of the law” arising from those registrations.
In order to determine the cost and length of time required to perform a database search such as that envisioned in HB 2974, “We would have to determine the ease of such a process and how long it would take if the bill were signed into law,” said Misha Mohr, public information officer for the State Election Board.
Oklahoma had 2.21 million registered voters as of Nov. 30, agency ledgers show.
Last year Southwest Ledger wrote about a dozen adult members of an evangelical, anti-abortion group living in a 5,000 square-foot four-bedroom house in Guthrie; on their voter registration papers, all listed the address of that house as their place of residence.
“There is currently no statutory limit on the number of registered voters who can live at one address,” Ms. Mohr said. But state law does decree that “any person who knowingly swears or affirms a false affidavit in order to become eligible to vote, to obtain and vote a provisional ballot, to obtain and vote an absentee ballot, or to cause the cancellation of a qualified elector’s voter registration, shall be deemed guilty of a felony.” Any evidence of potential voting crimes is required by law to be reported to the appropriate district attorney.
Don’t Tread on Me
In SB 1094, the Legislature would pre-empt any municipal ordinance or regulation that would “infringe upon the rights” of any United States citizen in Oklahoma “from flying the flag of the United States on their personal property.”
However, the proposed state statute would not prohibit a municipality from enacting an ordinance or regulation to limit the size of the “Old Glory,” the number of flags or their proximity to roadways, as a public safety precaution.
The author of SB 1094 is Sen. Jake Merrick, R-Yukon. Merrick, a pastor and former professor of theology and philosophy at Southwestern Christian University in Bethany, never responded to a message left by Southwest Ledger.
There are no known instances of any town in Oklahoma adopting an ordinance to prohibit anyone from flying “Old Glory.” A homeowners association cannot ban a resident from flying the “Stars and Stripes,” because one’s right to display the United States flag is protected by federal law: the “Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005”.
However, a homeowners association can impose reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of a flag display (provided the restrictions are to protect a substantial interest of the association). For example, an HOA could ban a U.S. flag attached to a rickety flagpole over a public sidewalk, or a flag so large it blocks a neighbor’s view or poses a traffic hazard.