OKLAHOMA CITY — Supporters of an initiative petition have obtained enough signatures to get legalized recreational marijuana on an upcoming ballot.
But whether all the processes that must be gone through can be completed in time to get the state question on the Nov. 8 ballot is uncertain.
The Oklahoma Secretary of State’s Office notified the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday that it had certified 117,257 of the 164,000 signatures recreational marijuana supporters had turned in on July 5. The number certified is well more than the 94,111 needed to put the proposed statutory change to the state’s voters.
State Question 820 would safely legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana for adults 21 years old and older, said Michelle Tilley, the movement’s campaign director and petitioner.
Its passage would provide revenue to schools, health care organizations and local governments, she said.
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It also would allow for expungement of low-level marijuana criminal records, she said.
The question now would have to survive a protest period before it could be put on a ballot.
The 10-day protest period begins once the Secretary of State’s Office publishes a notice in a newspaper of general circulation after getting a green light from the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Oklahoma Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax on Monday declined to offer an opinion as to whether the measure could make the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
But in a June 22 letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt, Ziriax wrote that Aug. 29 — next Monday — is technically the deadline to get it on the ballot. However, as a practical matter, the Oklahoma State Election Board needs to receive an executive proclamation no later than 5 p.m. Friday, which is when county election boards certify the results of the primary runoff elections, he wrote.
“This ‘practical deadline’ ensures that county election boards have time to prepare ballots to meet the 45-day deadline to send absentee ballots to military voters,” he wrote.
Supporters of the measure have asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to put the question on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, when a higher turnout of voters can be expected.
In a brief, supporters allege significant delays by the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s Office in counting the signatures.
Normally, the signature-counting process would take two to three weeks, but this one lingered for nearly seven weeks, the brief says.
The filing says the count was done by an inexperienced private vendor with a no-bid contact.
“The administrative delay was both unexpected and inexplicable,” the brief says.
Tilley said that if the state question is already on an upcoming ballot but then falls based on a challenge, the state could simply not count the votes cast on the recreational marijuana question.
The measure would not alter the state’s current medical marijuana program, approved by voters in 2018 through State Question 788.
Meanwhile, supporters of two other marijuana initiative petitions say they don’t believe they will be able to acquire the needed signatures and won’t submit them to the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s Office.
State Question 818, if passed, would have put the right to medical marijuana in the state constitution. State Question 819 would have put the right to recreational marijuana in the state constitution.
Jed Green, director of Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action, said that organization might make another attempt in the spring.
Unlike SQ 820, the other two questions would create constitutional changes, which would make it more difficult for lawmakers to change the laws.
More signatures are required on petitions for constitutional changes than for statutory ones.
Initiative petitions for constitutional changes require at least 177,958 signatures.
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