State Question 836 helps boost civic literacy
- beth415
- Apr 13
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 14
Oklahoma is last in voter turnout. Why State Question 836 is essential to fix that.
13 April 2025
By Ros Elder, Tulsa
I've spent most of my professional life — first as a teacher and later as a volunteer for TulsaLibrary's Literacy Service — helping children and adults learn to read.
Literacy is more than just a skill; it's the foundation for personal growth, career success and strong communities.
But true literacy goes beyond reading and writing — it's about understanding the world,
making informed decisions and actively participating in society. Civic literacy is no different.
A healthy democracy relies on engaged and informed voters, yet our current election system discourages participation, limits whose voices are heard, and ultimately fosters civic illiteracy by shutting people out of the process. The consequences are showing — Oklahoma was dead last in the nation for voter turnout in November 2020 and 2024.
If voter turnout is a measure of civic literacy, we are in crisis.
That's why I support SQ 836, a proposal to open our primaries and ensure all voters, regardless of political affiliation, have a say in choosing their leaders.
Right now, Oklahoma's elections are largely decided in closed partisan primaries, where only a small, highly motivated group of voters determines who appears on the general election ballot. This system excludes too many Oklahomans from the process, discouraging voter engagement and civic education.
In 2024, only six of the 77 county sheriff posts were contested by members of both major parties. That means that in 71 counties, significant percentages of voters did not have a say in who their sheriff would be. This is especially troubling since publicly available polling repeatedly showed that public safety was a top priority for voters. Yet in a year when voters identified safety as a central concern, most had no meaningful way to engage with the election for their county's chief public safety officer.
They had little incentive to learn about the candidates — or even to participate in the election at all.
When people are denied meaningful participation in elections, they disengage from the political process altogether, leading to lower levels of civic literacy and a citizenry less prepared to hold leaders accountable.
Instead of promoting broad representation, closed primaries limit political competition and prioritize party loyalty over the public good. The result? A government that is often disconnected from the everyday concerns of its citizens, focusing more on partisan battles than on solving real problems.
SQ 836 fixes this by creating a system of open primaries in which all voters can participate. Instead of separate Republican and Democratic primaries, all candidates regardless of party — would appear on a single ballot, and all voters would have the right to participate. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, would then move on to the general election.
This system ensures that elected officials are accountable to a broader electorate, making elections more competitive, fair, and representative of the people.
Ros Elder is a retired teacher, a small-business owner and a library volunteer. She is president of the Friends of the Tulsa City County Library.
