Last week, a right-wing Oklahoma lawmaker quietly filed a piece of legislation that could put a state question on the ballot asking Oklahoma voters to limit their own powers.
Dubbed Senate Joint Resolution 4, if voted into law it would "increase the vote required" to pass state questions/ballot initiatives "from a simple majority to a 60% vote."
Basically, it would make it even more difficult for Oklahoma voters to overcome their own lawmaker's incompetence, and achieve things like legalizing medical marijuana, releasing low-level drug offenders from prison, and accepting federal money to fund Medicaid.
The bill was filed by State Sen. John Haste – a resident of the anti-masker oasis of Broken Arrow. You can view the entire resolution below:
That's good stuff. Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Sweet Home Oklahoma, but I always thought attempts by the right-wing to consolidate power into it's tiny gerrymandered hands would be more clandestine. You know, backroom, midnight deals that go through unnoticed until it's too late. Instead, they're just straight-up asking us to vote to take away our powers! That seems pretty brazen, but based on the Oklahoma tradition of voting against your own self-interest, it's probably not a bad plan.
Anyway, if all this sounds familiar, it's because it is.
Last year, the Oklahoma House also tried to limit the ability of voters to circumvent their incompetent lawmakers. As opposed to increasing the number of votes a state question would require to pass, they instead focused on making it harder to get a State Question on the actual ballot. The legislation passed easily through the Oklahoma House, but stalled in the Senate. I'm just going to assume this new bill is the Senate's well-crafted, well-polled response, and will probably coast through both chambers.
