OKC turnout could affect initiatives

Staff Writer wcrum@oklahoman.com

Turnout in Tuesday’s mayoral primary could shape local grassroots politics for the next four years.

Turnout matters because the signature threshold to qualify an initiative petition for the ballot depends on how many votes are cast in the election.

The lower the turnout, the fewer signatures are necessary.

The prospect of that number — currently 11,991 — being driven lower raises the question of why two unknowns would file to run against a well-funded and wellconnected candidate.

Taylor Neighbors and Randall Smith are challenging David Holt, a state senator and former chief of staff in the mayor’s office who is expected to win in a walk.

Neighbors is a 21-yearold junior piano major at the University of Oklahoma who filed on the last day of the three-day filing period in December.

She set up a rudimentary website and reported receiving $3,000 in donations from her family and a family-related business entity.

Neighbors said she ran because the race felt like a “dynastic succession, not a democratic election.”

Smith filed on the first day of the filing period, as did Holt.

Smith said he would not campaign and filed no reports indicating he raised any money.

But he denied filing simply to trigger an election that could push down the signature threshold.

Maughan drops out

The race had looked to be contested until October, when Oklahoma County District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan dropped out.

Maughan had been the first to formally get into the race. He withdrew to concentrate on recovering from injuries sustained in a June 8 traffic accident.

Maughan’s decision left Holt as the only announced candidate. For more than a month, it appeared Holt would be elected without opposition.

That mattered to advocates of last fall’s bid for a vote on a local income tax for teacher pay raises.

Although they turned in 16,998 signatures, their initiative fell about 1,000 valid signatures short of the 11,991 needed to qualify for the ballot.

The ruling on their shortfall came just four days before filing opened in the mayor’s race.

Signature threshold

Had Holt been the only candidate, the signature threshold would have remained 11,991, based on the outcome of the 2014 mayoral election.

An initiative needs signatures equal to 25 percent of the votes cast in the most recent citywide election.

And an uncontested race does not qualify as an election for purposes of setting the signature requirement.

After coming up short, Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid, who led the teacher pay raise signature drive, said advocates would “stand up, brush ourselves off and keep fighting.”

Whether they will revive their initiative remains unclear.

Shadid said recently advocates were closely watching developments at the Legislature, where teacher pay raises are being debated.

In 2014, backers failed to collect enough signatures on petitions to raise the minimum wage, reduce penalties for marijuana possession, and impose term limits on the mayor and city council.

Efforts also failed earlier that year to garner enough signatures for votes on whether to cancel the MAPS 3 convention center and end the MAPS 3 sales tax early.

That year, only about 6,000 valid signatures were required to qualify for the ballot.

Ward 6 activist Bob Waldrop said last week that initiatives to improve bus service and reconfigure city council wards, going from eight to 10, “come immediately to my mind” if the signature requirement is relaxed.