Oklahoma’s voting system is leading to low turnout rates, the election of more extreme candidates and disenfranchisement of voters who are excluded from participating in primary elections, experts said.

That’s prompting conversations about whether reforms are needed to increase voter participation rates and how the state can ensure hundreds of thousands of independent voters have a voice at the ballot box at a time when most outcomes are determined months ahead of November’s general election.

In Oklahoma House District 20’s Republican runoff last week, Jonathan Wilk defeated Mike Whaley with 50.03% of the vote. The race was decided by two votes, according to the unofficial results from the State Election Board, and Wilks will face Democrat Mitchell Jacob in the Nov. 5 general election.

There are 38,918 constituents in District 20, but with only 3,334 votes cast in this Republican runoff election, only 8.57% of the district cast a vote.

Oklahoma ranks 50th in voter turnout during the last presidential election in November 2020, according to a report from the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office. Only Texas had a lower turnout.

Because of the state’s closed primaries and low voter turnout, Seth McKee, political science professor at Oklahoma State University, said many elections are decided before the general election. He said this means it’s easier for more extreme candidates to prevail in these elections where turnout “drops off a cliff” compared with general elections.

“You can get extremists who really play to the Republican base because it’s all about winning that primary,” he said. “And when you think about primary participation, that’s really low too. And so a lot of those people might be somewhat more ideological.”

Pat McFerron, a political consultant with CMA Strategies, said turnout for November elections is so low because there aren’t as many competitive elections in Oklahoma by that time.

“There’s not going to be a great variation, quite frankly, between the different Republican candidates running,” he said. “You’re going to get a chocolate chip cookie, just one might have nuts, and the other one not. So what that does to the campaign is you have to differentiate yourself, and you do that through negative campaigning.”

McFerron said low voter turnout is part of a cycle that needs to be broken in Oklahoma.

He described the state’s current system as “market share politics” where a candidate doesn’t need to appeal to the majority of voters, but just needs to motivate enough people to show up to the polls.

“I think that we have to do something to have every elected official stand before every voter at some point. That’s the only way we can break this cycle,” he said. “Right now there’s no differentiation between the candidates that are being chosen in the primary. So that leads to negative campaigning, which discourages people from voting, which leads to fewer people turning out, which leads to even more strident, negative campaigning, which leads to fewer people voting.”

Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, said the one-party control of the state Legislature makes registered voters from all political parties think their vote doesn’t matter.

“They (Republicans) feel like it’s a foregone conclusion, and that they don’t need to vote because it’s going to be a Republican anyway. And so it’s working on both sides,” Andrews said. “It’s making Democrats feel like it doesn’t matter because there aren’t Democrats, in their opinion, getting elected, and Republicans feel like it doesn’t matter because they’re in a supermajority and they’re just gonna stay in the supermajority.”

Andrews said Democrats need to continue to challenge Republicans in every election to give voters a choice and ensure that candidates are campaigning and informing voters of their platform. Andrews said she was on a ballot last week, simply to force her opponent to campaign and force her to earn the seat.

She said that she hopes for higher turnout in November with Vice President Kamala Harris facing former President Donald Trump to become the next United States president.

“I think that more people in Oklahoma will turn out because there’s a lot more excitement,” Andrews said. “And it’s this kind of thing that gets people. … Something has to speak to them. And I think with Vice President Harris entering into the race, it changes what the race was.”

Calls for election reforms

Groups advocating for open primaries in Oklahoma say that the state’s current system prevents thousands of Oklahomans from participating in elections.

Oklahoma United, founded in 2021, is a nonpartisan group proposing a change from the state’s current partially closed primaries to an open primary system.

In Oklahoma, voters can only vote in the primary for the party they are registered with. The Republican, Libertarian and Democratic parties can allow independents to vote in their primaries, but only the Democratic Party allows it.

According to the Oklahoma State Election Board, there are over 358,000 active voters registered as independents in the state.

Margaret Kobos, founder and CEO of Oklahoma United, said the group is working to get their proposed plan on the ballot in November 2026 because they don’t want to wait on the Legislature.

Under the group’s proposal, all Oklahoma voters would be eligible to participate in one primary with all candidates being on the same ballot with their party affiliation identified.

“Our movement really is all about giving people choices, giving all the voters all the choices, seeing all the candidates in front of them,” Kobos said. “So instead of a very small fraction who might happen to turn out in a closed primary, we feel like it benefits the parties, it benefits candidates. It provides a path for new candidates and people who might have space in their lives to volunteer for the good of all of us.”

Amber England, a spokesperson for a state question seeking to raise the minimum wage, said reform needs to go beyond open primaries and include removing restrictions on early voting, mail in voting and primaries.

Some of these restrictions are short window for early voting, lack of same day voter registration and a requirement to produce identification in order to vote.

“Oklahomans don’t believe that the problems that they face every day are getting solved by politicians, and so they don’t think their vote matters,” she said. “And so they just don’t vote because they’re disengaged, and that is problematic because the legislature focuses on culture war issues and scoring political points instead of actually addressing real problems.”

England said that is why Oklahomans are able to act on state questions for “real” issues the Legislature doesn’t focus on.

“You can see sometimes that voters will pass policies that the Legislature just won’t touch, and it’s because Oklahomans are reasonable, and our Legislature really isn’t a reflection of how Oklahomans view what problems need to be solved,” she said.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.