Redo election scheduled for Oklahoma’s Sequoyah Public Schools

By

Mercedes Yanora

Welcome to the Friday, July 26, Brew. 

By: Mercedes Yanora

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. Redo election scheduled for Oklahoma’s Sequoyah Public Schools
  2. Eleven new measures certified for the ballot, 25 pending signature verification 
  3. Did you know that from 2016 to 2024, the 100 largest U.S. cities had an average of 64 mayors affiliated with the Democratic Party and 29 affiliated with the Republican Party?

Redo election scheduled for Oklahoma’s Sequoyah Public Schools 

Voters in Oklahoma’s Sequoyah Public Schools will see a court-ordered redo election on their ballots on Aug. 27 after the discovery of irregularities in a close race from last spring.

Background about redo elections

Usually, states or courts only call for a redo election if the number of ballots affected is large enough to change the outcome of the election. Other reasons include electoral fraud, natural disasters, or issues with voting technology. While rare, most redo elections take place at the municipal or county level. There have been only two congressional redo elections in the last 50 years. 

While most states have provisions on how to handle contested elections, they normally don’t include what to do if fraud or mistakes occurred. This often leaves the ultimate decision of whether to call a redo election up to the states or courts based on legal precedents, interpretation of state laws, and a close examination of the contested elections in question. 

The amount of time between an initial election and a redo election depends on how quickly the legal cases around a contested election proceed. In 2019, a redo election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District took place 308 days after the initial election. In 2020, a redo election for sheriff in Iron County, Missouri, took place 49 days after the initial election.

About the redo in Sequoyah

Greg Perry and Lyndsey Young ran in a special general election for the Sequoyah Public Schools’ Office 2 seat on April 2, Oklahoma’s statewide school board general election date. Perry received 225 votes to Young’s 222.

After reviewing the voter registries, Young challenged the results, which revealed 10 irregular votes due to a mixture of out-of-district voters and one person voting twice.  

On April 11, District Court Judge Lara Russell upheld Young’s challenge. Election officials sent a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) the following day requesting a new election be held on Aug. 27.

In her order, Russell cited a 1991 Oklahoma Supreme Court case, Jackson v. Maley, which established that a court may order a redo election if the number of irregular votes is larger than the margin of victory.

This was not the only April 2 election called into question. Zane James challenged the results in the district’s Office 4 race after losing to incumbent Jeff Radley by 15 votes. James cited the same irregularities as in the Office 2 election. In this case, that number was less than the margin of victory, resulting in the case’s dismissal.

To read about other noteworthy redo elections, click here.

Keep reading

Eleven new measures certified for the ballot, 25 pending signature verification 

So far this year, 136 statewide ballot measures have been certified in 39 states. An average of 136 measures were certified at this point between 2012 and 2022. An average of 157 statewide measures were on the ballot in even-numbered years from 2012 to 2022. 

Here’s an update on the ballot measure activity during the past two weeks.

Election officials certified 11 ballot measures in seven states—Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington:

Campaigns submitted signatures for 25 initiatives in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.

The next initiative signature deadline is Aug. 5 in Colorado.

The following chart shows the number of ballot measures certified each week of an even-numbered year.

Keep reading 

Did you know that from 2016 to 2024, the 100 largest U.S. cities had an average of 64 mayors affiliated with the Democratic Party and 29 affiliated with the Republican Party? 

Currently, 63 of the 100 most populous cities’ mayors are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 25 with the Republican Party, and one with the Libertarian Party. Five mayors are nonpartisan, four are independents, and two mayors’ partisan affiliations are unknown.

Because most mayoral offices are officially nonpartisan, Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder’s partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Click here to learn more about the party affiliation of mayors in the 100 most populous cities.