Okla. Republicans fare well in lowturnout 2014 midterms Football finally wins, p. 11 SPE takes first in international competition, p. 4
“Oklahoma Voices” comes to TU, p. 5 “Nightcrawler” reels viewers in, p. 6 TU graffiti “artist” reaches “peak,” p. 9
Oklahoma struggles to engage its citizens in the democratic process. Low voter turnout and a general lack of enthusiasm demonstrate a sense of apathy towards politics. Student Life Reporter Michaela Flonard reports. Full disclosure: The Collegian’s News Editor, Nikki Hager, is the founder and president of Common Sense Action, referenced in this article.
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n the 2014 midterm election, Oklahoma was ranked the state with the third lowest voter turnout, with 40 percent of the votingeligible population (VEP) voting. Maine, with the highest voter turnout, had 59 percent of its VEP vote. The Oklahoma Policy Institute (OK Policy), a nonpartisan think tank, decided to run a series on Oklahoma’s low voter turnout. David Blatt, the Executive Director, said it was specifically “triggered by this summer’s runoff (primary) election,” as “Oklahoma held critical races, but barely 1 out of 10 voters came to polls.” OK Policy then looked further in Oklahoma voting habits and found several problems. Only 76.9 percent of eligible adults are registered to vote, and while the population has increased about 20 percent from 1994 to 2012, the number of registered voters has only increased by 0.6 percent in that timespan. The 2012 turnout confirmed that of those registered, very few go to the polls, even in presidential years. Millennials, those aged from 18 to 29, vote at one of the lowest percentages of all groups. Andrew Cummings, Vice President of Policy for TU’s Common Sense Action, a non-partisan millennial political organization, notes that in the 2012 election, Oklahoma had “about 27 percent of those under 29 vote, while turnout for over thirty was
60 percent.” Oklahoma has “a lot of ground to be made up,” he added, as this “was the largest gap in the nation.” Additionally, there are a large number of uncontested elections in the state. Of the nine statewide offices up for election in November, voters will only decide on four, because the rest were uncontested or decided in the primary. “Only in Congressional races will a clear majority of voters actually get a chance to cast a ballot,” according to the OK Policy. Matthew Hindman, assistant professor of Political Science, agreed. “This is seen to be not a competitive state,” he said. “When it looks like one party is in charge, people tend not to want to go vote.” “Why?” he continued. “Because they already know the result. Most voters know that, and they know that regardless of whether they go vote, Gov. Fallon will be reelected … if you take a look at those states with higher voter turnout, those that have closer contests have a little higher turnout than those that don’t.” But things weren’t always this way, according to Blatt. “Until 2004, Oklahoma voted higher than the national average,” Blatt said. “Something has happened in the last 10 to 20 years” that caused Oklahoma’s drop in voting. Hindman said, “Lots of voters have a hard time understanding what’s at stake.” While “most voters know we have a divided government,” he said, “not a lot of people felt that this people felt that this election was important relative to presidential elections.” Both Blatt and Hindman have suggestions to improve Oklahoma’s voter engagement. First, OK Policy proposes to “change the voter access laws, as Oklahoma has some of the most restrictive voter access laws in the nation.”
See Turnout p. 5
Gov. Fallin and U.S. Senator Inhofe were reelected, Lankford filled Coburn’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, and Republicans tightened their grip on the Okla. State legislature. Editor’s note: The numbers in this article are preliminary. Official numbers have not yet been released.
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n Nov. 4, when the national media were focused on which party would win control of the U.S. Senate, Oklahomans voted in state and nationwide races. Of all states, Oklahoma had the third lowest percentage of registered voters come to the polls. Oklahoma generally didn’t receive much coverage because polling indicated that its major races were very likely to go in favor of the Republicans. There were six partisan statewide elections. They were for the governor, lieutenant
“Of all states, Oklahoma had the third lowest percentage of registered voters come to the polls, at 40 percent” governor, superintendent of public instruction, commissioner of labor and two senators, all of which Republicans won. Voters had the option of voting for these candidates individually (which allows for voting for candidates of different parties) or of simply voting for a party. Selecting the straight party vote automatically counted the ballot in favor of all the candidates of whichever party was selected. 282,092 voters took this option, with forty percent of those voting Democratic and the other sixty percent voting Republican. Governor Mary Fallin ran for and won a second term. Because of term limits, this will be her final term as governor. She defeated Democratic challenger Joe Dorman
and two independents with 56 percent of the vote. The race had the most participation of any of the races in Oklahoma at 823,761 votes. Despite this, voter turnout for the gubernatorial race was at its lowest point in twenty years. Oklahoma’s governor and lieutenant governor are similar to the offices of president and vice president, respectively. However, unlike the federal government, in which the president and vice president run together on a single ticket, Oklahoma elects governor and lieutenant governor separately. This makes it theoretically possible for the two to be from different political parties. Incumbent Todd Lamb, a Republican, won re-election against Democrat Cathy Cummings with 69 percent of the vote. He is also term-limited. Also unlike the federal government, Oklahoma has some of its executive offices as elected positions and others as appointed members. One of the elected officers is the superintendent of public instruction. Incumbent Janet Barresi was defeated by Joy Hofmeister in the Republican primary in June, so she was not on the ballot for the general election. Hofmeister defeated Democrat John Cox with 56 percent of the vote. Another elected executive is the commissioner of labor. Incumbent Republican Mark Costello defeated Democrat Mike Workman with 63 percent of the vote. There are five other elected executives in Oklahoma, all of which had Republican candidates running unopposed. The four incumbents running for reelection among them are State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones, Attorney General Scott Pruitt, State Treasurer Ken Miller and Insurance Commissioner John Doak. Todd Hiett ran for corporation commissioner to replace chair Patrice Douglas. There are
See Election Results p. 5