Oklahoma State Representative Mickey Dollens is rallying against Senate Bill 1027, legislation that could vastly alter the landscape of citizen-led ballot initiatives. The bill recently passed through the House Elections, and Ethics Committee with a strict party-line vote, eliciting concerns among voters and various pro-democracy groups throughout the state.
In a no-holds-barred critique, Dollens, a Democrat hailing from Oklahoma City, lambasted SB 1027 for betraying a core tenet embedded within the state's constitution—that all political power is intrinsically possessed by the people. According to a release shared on the Oklahoma House of Representatives website, Dollens argues that the bill would prioritize politicians over the populous by introducing stringent limits on where signatures for petitions can be collected and curbing financial support from out-of-state sources. The bill also proposes handing over new, arbitrary powers to the Secretary of State, which would include the ability to accept or deny the wording of a petition.
The representative pinpointed certain elements of the bill, such as caps on the amount of valid signatures from any given county, as disproportionately disenfranchising voters in more populous regions and dismissing valid voter signatures. Dollens also mentioned that provisions within SB 1027 that looked to ban non-resident circulators and out-of-state contributions have already been struck down in federal court—drawing parallels to Yes on Term Limits v. Savage and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, respectively.
Expressing his dismay over the committee's decision not to accept his amendment to extend the signature gathering window from 90 to 180 days, Dollens emphasized the necessity for ample time to meet the high signature thresholds, especially in less populated areas. He pointed out that Oklahoma currently possesses the shortest signature-gathering period in the nation. In his statement, he declared, "This bill is not about reform—it’s about control over the people’s right to petition their government," "It’s a direct response to successful ballot initiatives passed by citizens of Oklahoma when the legislature failed to act. Rather than listening to voters, SB 1027 seeks to silence them," a statement obtained by the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Dollens is stirring the public to action, urging Oklahomans to vehemently oppose SB 1027 as it journeys through the legislative process. He calls for constituents to actively reach out to their representatives and demand that they vote against the bill, qualifying it as a fundamental threat to the constitutional right to petition the government for change. An impassioned Dollens communicated, "We must defend our constitutional right to petition the government," urging citizen engagement in the face of the bill's continued advancement, as per the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
