Oklahoma AG objects to lawsuit seeking expanded absentee voting

Hunter’s comments are in response to a lawsuit filed in Tulsa federal court that challenges the constitutionality of those requirements and others as a condition to cast a ballot in the state.

The lawsuit, filed in May by the Oklahoma Democratic Party and the national congressional committee of the Democratic Party, seeks to have a judge declare that notarization, witness and photo identification requirements to cast a ballot in Oklahoma “impose undue burdens on the right to vote in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”

While the state of Oklahoma has waived the notarization requirements for mailed absentee ballots cast during the June primary and Tuesday’s runoff elections due to COVID-19, the waiver would not apply during the November general election unless Gov. Kevin Stitt extends an emergency declaration.

The lawsuit seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions to prohibit the “burdensome restrictions and procedures.”

“Unless rectified, these barriers will force voters to choose between their health and the health and safety of their community on the one hand, and their fundamental right to vote on the other,” according to the lawsuit.

Oklahoma is one of only five states to require mailed-in absentee ballots to be notarized, according to the lawsuit.

“There is no evidence that the states without such requirements suffer from increased voter fraud,” the two Democratic groups claim in their lawsuit.

Hunter said in the release that the state has been “proactive” in changing election rules to make it safer and more accessible to voters, including spending funds to make in-person voting safer, expand the pool of potential poll workers and use more public facilities as polling places during the pandemic.

“The plaintiffs’ nonsensical demands would create a system that is a threat to the integrity of our state’s electoral process and sow chaos by upending the election rules this late in the cycle,” Hunter stated.

Hunter also claimed hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans voted safely and successfully in the primary election, both in person and by absentee balloting.

Chief U.S. District Judge John Dowdell has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday in Tulsa federal court to hear arguments on the request for the injunctions.

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