Jerrad Coots of Mari Protect Signs Cannabis Petition
Jerrad Coots signs a petition for recreational marijuana Tuesday in the Big Lots parking lot. The tent will be located in this location for the rest of the week as supporters of recreational marijuana try to gain enough signatures to get the measure on a ballot.
Kyle Phillips / The Transcript
OKLAHOMA CITY — The state’s secretary of state warned Monday that recreational marijuana legalization is not likely to appear on November’s ballot — even if a citizen-led effort manages to collect enough signatures. “It’s highly unlikely under the normal process for this to be on the November election ballot, and if there’s protest filed then it’s virtually impossible,” Secretary of State James Williamson said.
Williamson said the normal review process for a citizen-led initiative petition takes 60 days on average. It can take even longer if the proposed ballot measure faces adversarial court proceedings.
Under law, a state question vote can’t take place fewer than 70 days from the date the governor calls the election, said Paul Ziriax, state Election Board secretary. This year, the governor has until Aug. 27 to call it.
“If we have a proclamation, we will put it on the ballot,” Ziriax said. “But if we don’t have a timely proclamation, we can’t.”
If supporters turn in signatures on their Aug. 8 deadline, that would leave just 19 days left before the Aug. 27 deadline to add State Question 797 to the ballot, Williamson said.
State Question 788 — the ballot measure that ultimately legalized medical marijuana — faced a similar obstacle two years ago. Organizers turned in their signatures too late to qualify for the November ballot. Voters had to wait about two years until the next statewide election.
In this case, Williamson said the governor could order a special statewide election or decide to wait until one of regular ones in 2020.
Organizers estimated 118,000 signatures collected as of Sunday, said Isaac Caviness, president of the Tulsa-based advocacy organization Green the Vote. The group spearheading the petition effort needs about 124,000 signatures to qualify the issue for a future ballot, but Green the Vote is hoping to collect 150,000 in case any are disqualified during the review process.
Caviness said his group considered turning in signatures ahead of the Aug. 8 deadline, but decided they’d be even more disappointed if they rushed, ended up short and didn’t make the ballot at all.
“It is more important to get these on a ballot rather than try to rush it through and be on November’s ballot,” he said.
However, Caviness said there would be anger if Oklahoma officials purposely tried to stop the issue from appearing on the November ballot.
“If they were to slow the process down to purposely keep it off November’s ballot, then that person would face a lot of backlash,” Caviness said.
State officials are already facing criticism and lawsuits from their attempts to implement emergency medical marijuana regulations. Nearly 57 percent of Oklahoma voters in June approved legalization under State Question 788.
On July 10, the State Board of Health enraged many Oklahoma voters when it added questionable rules that banned the sales of smokable forms of cannabis and required pharmacists work in dispensaries. Board members adopted the rules against the advice of their legal counsel and without allowing either provision to be publicly vetted.
Last week, the state’s attorney general said the board overstepped is authority and suggested its members schedule a special meeting to rescind the ban and pharmacist requirement.
Gov. Mary Fallin, who approved the emergency rules, then urged the board to do the same.
Caviness said interest and support spiked in his group’s initiative following the board’s decision.
“It’s a night-and-day difference from the day that the Health Department came up with those rules,” he said. “You could not have paid for the kind of publicity that came out, and the boost we have gotten from the bad regulations that they put in.”
Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhi.com.
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By Janelle Stecklein | CNHI News Oklahoma
Jul 25, 2018
