Since 2010, I have been actively blogging about the elections in Oklahoma. I find them to be very interesting for a variety of reasons. Among them is Oklahoma’s harsh ballot access laws, closed primaries and the disproportionate control the Republican Party has on government.
This week is the time in which candidates for a variety of offices will be filing the necessary paperwork to run for elections. This year we have all statewide offices, including the Governor and Lt. Governor, all five Congressional seats and for a rare treat both US Senate seats. We also have elections for all 101 State House seats and 25 of 48 State Senate seats.
I am most interested in the state legislature and the races there. That is where most of the difference is made in Oklahoma. In previous years we have had very weak competition for incumbents. In 2012, around 36% of the legislative seats up for grabs made it to the November ballot. The rest were either uncontested or settled in one of Oklahoma’s closed partisan primary elections. I am hoping for a far better showing on the November ballot this year.
Primarily, I hope for a better turnout from Independents. We have had a very weak Independent candidate base with the last 2 elections having only 3 Independents seeking state legislative seats. I hope to see far more than that this year.
This weekend, I will publish an article which will list what the coming elections will look like. I look forward to seeing who will be running for office this year.
