House Bill 2564 — signed into law Monday by Gov. Kevin Stitt — would provide for recounts of closely contested state question votes.
Under previous state law, the state Election Board’s results of any state question become the final count, not matter how close the race may have been.
In elections involving people, losing candidates have long had the option of asking for a recount, if they were willing to post a bond to pay for the costs.
HB 2564 allows the governor or attorney general to ask for a recount of any closely contested state question vote, if they post bond to cover the costs.
Recounts become automatic in any state questions decided by less than 0.5% of the results. Constitutional amendments go to an automatic recount if the vote is decided by 1%.
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The state election board secretary has 45 days to complete a recount. The bill provides for state funding in the case of an automatic recount.
That’s a reasonable idea, and one that will give Oklahoma voters greater confidence in close election results.
Oklahoma’s electronic voting machines are very accurate, and recounts rarely result in changed results.
But in closely contested issues, especially involving changes to the state Constitution, it’s in the best interest of everyone involved if there’s no doubt about the results.
The most recent state question where the automatic recount would have been triggered was 2020’s State Question 802, which rewrote the Oklahoma Constitution to mandate Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. SQ 802 received 50.4% of more than 674,000 votes cast.
The question had heavy urban support and heavy rural opposition. The measure only received a majority in seven of the state’s 77 counties, leaving some voters questioning the results because so few of their neighbors had voted for it.
The vote wasn’t recounted, and HB 2564 won’t turn back time and allow for one now.
If the automatic recount had been in effect, we feel certain SQ 802 still would have passed with pretty much the same numbers, but opponents would have been able to walk away with fewer doubts.
HB 2564 protects everyone involved in a state question equally, and it will give greater confidence in election results, which makes it a appropriate function of state government.
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