Educating voters on the power of the ballot

Saturday, May 26 Jerry Goodwin for City Council District 1 hosted an event at the Greenwood Cultural Center entitled “PowHERful Black Women in Politics,” which was in honor of distinguished guests Senator Connie Johnson, Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate, & Senator Anastasia Pittman, candidate for Lt. Governor of Oklahoma.

Johnson recently retired after serving thirty-three years in the State Senate, representing Oklahoma City’s predominantly African American “Eastside,” where her focus was on health, mental health and human services issues that disproportionately affect the economic and social well-being of the poor, minorities, women, children, and people with disabilities was gamechanging.

Pittman won her election to District 99 of the House of Representatives in November 2006 and District 48 of the State Senate in November 2014. She is the second Seminole citizen to serve in the legislature and has had a distinguished career in public service for almost 20 years.

Johnson and Pittman both spoke to the group of about 100 in attendance about their platforms and about history in the making. Both candidates talked about their plan for funding education, which for them means finding “new money” including, but not limited to, legalizing medical marijuana with the passing of Oklahoma State Question 788, which will be on the ballot June 26th.

More importantly, they educated the attendees on registering to vote and then signing up for absentee ballots so that voters can receive their ballots in the mail up to three weeks prior to the vote and have time to review them and discuss the state questions and candidates among their peers prior to deciding which way they wish to vote. Plus, the absentee ballot allows voters to have flexibility in their schedule so as not to not need to miss work in order to vote.

The deadline to register to vote for State Question 788 in the primary election on June 26th is June 1st. If you haven't registered by then, don't worry there are several other elections this year for our state government positions, so go ahead and register as soon as possible. Then take the extra step and sign up for absentee ballots for the whole year.

TO REGISTER TO VOTE: https://www.ok.gov/elections/Vot er_Info/index.html

Primary Election Date: June 26, 2018 | Runoff Election: August 28, 2018 | General Election: November 6, 2018

For more information on the candidates: https://connieforgovernor. com/and www.anastasiapittman.com.