Let all Oklahoma voters have a say: What are we afraid of?

6 June 2025

By Margaret Kobos, Founder & CEO of Oklahoma United

Published in the Enid News & Eagle

Margaret Kobos

Oklahoma’s election system is broken — and voters know it.

Too many elections are decided before the general public has a chance to weigh in. Too many voters are shut out entirely from critical elections, despite paying for them with their tax dollars. And too many politicians are rewarded not for listening to the broad electorate, but for pleasing a narrow group of party insiders.

Voters know intuitively they cannot contribute to a system designed to produce the same results over and over and over. This is why Oklahoma is dead last in voter participation. This is why our political parties often cannot field candidates for down ballot elections. This is why Oklahoma seems paralyzed when it comes to real common sense and forward motion.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

State Question 836 offers a common sense, voter-focused solution: A nonpartisan open primary system where all candidates — regardless of party — appear on a single ballot, and every registered voter can participate. The top two vote-getters then move on to the general election. This simple reform would give every voter a voice in every publicly funded election.

Some political pundits misleadingly argue that open primaries are chaotic or radical. But, in fact, forms of open primaries already are working across the country — and right here in Oklahoma. Every municipal election in our state uses an open primary format in which all voters help choose the best leaders. It’s not chaos. It’s democracy.

Right now, Oklahoma’s closed primary system locks out more than 480,000 independent voters — nearly one in five of our state’s electorate. Independents are the fastest growing group of voters in the U.S. and Oklahoma. These voters are forced to pay for our intentionally exclusionary, closed party primary elections and then sit on the sidelines and watch everyone else vote. That’s taxation without representation, plain and simple, and it is wrong.

Even voters registered with a party frequently find themselves excluded from voting in key elections if they live in an area dominated by the other party. A Republican living in a progressive urban area, for instance, will find themselves locked out of the election in which the real action happens: the Democratic primary. The down-ballot candidates selected in that election will either run unopposed in November or win in a landslide. Our voters are caught in a logistical election trap, affiliating with parties for the wrong reasons and maneuvering registration just to exercise their constitutional right to vote. That’s not healthy for anyone — it’s a red flag.

When elections are decided in closed primaries, candidates have little incentive to speak to the broader electorate. Instead, they focus on the loudest, most extreme voices in their own party. This dynamic distorts input, driving polarization, gridlock, and disconnection from what really matters to constituents. Our closed partisan elections produce elected officials who misapprehend citizen priorities, fight about strange and obscure culture war issues, and fail to deal with the very real problems right under our noses. Polling and out-of-state special interest agendas are not the antidote. Our people are.

Open primaries are a simple solution with the power to reverse that trend. They require candidates to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters — from independents to moderates to pragmatic members of both major parties. That makes for more accountable leadership and more meaningful elections.

Some critics claim that political parties should have exclusive control over their nomination process. But primaries are not private club elections — they are taxpayer-funded components of our public election system. When public dollars are subsidizing an activity, the public must have access. Fairness and transparency should take precedence over party gatekeeping.

And let’s be clear: Open primaries don’t take away anyone’s or any party’s rights — they expand them. Parties still can endorse, recruit, and support their preferred candidates, but voters get to decide who moves forward in all elections they fund — not just a small slice of partisan loyalists.

State Question 836 is our opportunity to fix a broken system and put voters back in charge. Every election should count. Every voice should matter. And every voter should have a say.

Let’s move Oklahoma forward — together.