Out of all of Oklahoma's problems, dealing with the threat of non-citizens casting votes in Oklahoma elections seems like it would be pretty low on the list, somewhere between establishing truck nut tax subsidies and noodling safety regulations. Nevertheless, some Oklahoma lawmakers are hard at work protecting us from issues that don't matter.
Via OKC Talk's news partner, KFOR:
Lawmakers in the House are considering a bill which would verify how many registered voters are legal citizens.
House Bill 3341, authored by Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, would allow the Secretary of the State Election Board to compare state and federal databases for the purposes of seeing whether there are non-citizens registered as voters...
Under the bill, voters who are not citizens would not be prohibited from voting, but they would be turned over to the district attorney's office for their county.
When the bill was initially drafted, it required anyone registering to vote or showing up to polls to bring documents proving their legal status; however, it was amended.
"We worked with the Election Board to prevent any lawsuits," Roberts told News 4. "Other states have done similar things where they require citizenship up front, and we’re just trying to avoid all that."
Wow. That's awesome! Screw the fact that teachers can't get a raise, prisons are overflowing, or that our state is being run into the ground by religious zealots, racists and corporate oil cartels – we need to take care of those pesky not-citizens who register to vote! They're the real problem!
That being said, before we tackle this very important issue, maybe we should first make sure that our voting machines work and local precincts have the correct ballots:
Via Tulsa's KTUL:
There were a number of issues in yesterday’s election in Muskogee. A broken machine and incorrect ballots gave election board officials fits throughout the day.
We got a peek inside the booth where votes wait to be counted.
“In my everyday life I try and learn something new every day,” says Election Board Secretary Kelly Beach. “Whether that be an entirely different subject or the one I’m involved in now in running elections. And yeah, it was a learning moment. A lot of things go on during the day. Phones are ringing, precincts are calling because people show up to the wrong precinct.”
Enough people showed up to vote in one polling place but they were running out of ballots.
“Ballots were taken out there before they ran out,” Beach says. “And it just so happened that the machine did its job and started rejecting ballots.”
They were rejected because they were for the wrong precinct...
“There were some delays,” he says. “There were some people that didn’t get to vote, but I think the majority of those people just stuck around and waited.”
Wow. They didn't get to vote? That's a relief. They were probably non-citizens anyway.
