POLITICS

Oklahoma Supreme Court tosses redistricting petition; proponents plan to refile

Carmen Forman
The Oklahoma Judicial Center, pictured on July 23, 2019, is the headquarters of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court tossed a redistricting initiative petition Tuesday, saying the petition's description does not adequately explain the measure to Oklahomans.

But in ruling on a second legal challenge, the court said the petition does not violate the First Amendment or the state's single-subject rule, which says initiative petitions may deal with only one main issue.

The court's ruling deals a partial blow to an initiative petition filed by People Not Politicians, which seeks to take redistricting power away from Oklahoma's Legislature and vest that authority with an independent commission.

People Not Politicians plans to rewrite the petition's gist, or the description voters see when they are asked to sign to put the measure on the ballot, and refile.

Andy Moore, the group's executive director, said the group intends to refile as soon as possible.

“We appreciate the court recognizing what we knew to be true all along — that our petition is constitutional," he said in a statement. "While this ruling changes nothing about our movement, we will follow the court’s helpful guidance in rewriting the gist and we will refile our petition immediately."

The petition could face another legal challenge once it is refiled.

The gist needs more detail so signatories know the petition is intended to curtail partisan gerrymandering, Justice Douglas Combs wrote in the majority opinion.

"We find the gist fails to alert potential signatories about the true nature of the proposed constitutional amendment," he wrote.

The court's ruling effectively halts People Not Politicians from moving forward to the signature-gathering phase of the initiative petition process.

GOP leaders of Oklahoma's House and Senate opposed the petition. The GOP-led Legislature is responsible for drawing the state’s legislative and congressional districts every decade following the U.S. Census.

House Speaker Charles McCall celebrated the court's ruling, and said his chamber will continue moving forward with its "proven" redistricting process.

“This proposal has been misleading and overly complicated from day one, and we are pleased the court recognized that by striking it down," he said.

People Not Politicians' petition seeks to create a nine-member Citizens' Independent Redistricting Commission made up of non-elected officials from different political parties. The petition goes into detail about how commissioners would be chosen and how they would draw new districts.