Ranked-Choice Voting & Open Primaries

By David Arnett

Rep. Eric Roberts, R-Oklahoma City, has filed legislation to prohibit the use of ranked-choice voting in all Oklahoma elections, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding the state’s electoral processes. This is good news, but Griffin Communications’ Tulsa KOTV Channel 6 Sunday promoted an “Open Primary System” just as today the State of New Hampshire utilizes that chaotic process to harm Republicans and their presumptive nominee Donald J. Trump.

House Bill 3156 would ban ranked-choice voting within the state. House Joint Resolution 1048 would introduce a legislative referendum allowing voters to decide whether to add stipulations about how elections are conducted into the Oklahoma Constitution and ensure voters can select only one candidate for the same office.

“Ranked-choice voting makes voting more confusing and has delayed election results everywhere it has been tried,” Roberts said in a release Monday. “We need to preserve the simplicity and timeliness of our current elections, along with our current ease in doing hand recounts when needed.”

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Drummond commends New York Exchange

By David Arnett

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is commending the New York Stock Exchange for listening to him and his fellow attorneys general by withdrawing a proposed rule change that would have allowed the listing of “Natural Asset Companies” (NACs) on the exchange. NACs are a novel corporate structure designed to take land off the market to prohibit productive economic uses, which would have negative effects on domestic oil and gas exploration and production he said in a statement today.

“The strict requirements for NACs would have significantly halted the development of natural resources, particularly energy exploration,” Drummond said. “Such a move would have had severe economic consequences for Oklahoma. I applaud the NYSE for listening to the counsel of this coalition of attorneys general and withdrawing this ill-advised and illegal proposed rule change.”

NACs are a new, untested corporate structure created to lease so-called “ecological performance rights” from landowners, including the federal government. NACs manage “natural assets” in lieu of generating revenue. Any “revenue-generating operations” an NAC engages in must be both “sustainable” and consistent with “its primary purpose” of protecting nature. 

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GOP State Committee Called

By David Arnett

Updated: Tuesday, GOP State Vice Chairman Wayne Hill called an official meeting of the State Committee for January 27th in Oklahoma City.

Beginning his call with notice that the “State Committee is the supreme authority of the State GOP,” Hill notes an internal struggle in Oklahoma’s Congressional District 3 and apparent betrayals by GOP elected officials. Hill writes, “Our ‘Republican’ Oklahoma Labor Commissioner, Leslie Osburn, supports LGBTQ ideology and chaired an organization indoctrinating our children. Our ‘Republican’ US Senator, James Lankford, worked on language for a bill with Chuck Schumer to allow more illegals into our country and further compromise our border.”

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State should not penalize parents

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma, like most states, has a compulsory education law. If you don’t homeschool or send your child to a private school, you are required to enroll your child in a public school. Failure to do so means you can face fines and up to 15 days imprisonment on a third offense.

But if parents enroll their child in the “wrong” public school, they can face up to one year in jail.

Put simply, the potential consequences for neglecting a child’s education are far less severe than the consequences for trying to get your child in a safer public school with a better academic atmosphere.

Fortunately, one lawmaker wants to put an end to that mixed message.

Oklahoma Senator Ally Seifried
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Bill Would Require School List of Materials

By David Arnett

Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, filed legislation to ensure public and charter school libraries are free from inappropriate materials. Senate Bill 1208 would require each public school district and charter school to submit an inventory of their library materials to the State Department of Education each year.

In a statement today, Hamilton said, “Children are too often exposed to material that is explicit and not age appropriate, and the last place that should be occurring is in our state’s schools.

“This legislation would put safeguards in place to not only ensure that students are protected from reading or viewing inappropriate content, but that the school districts are held accountable for the availability of such materials,” Hamilton added.

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