His signing was announced minutes after the State Board of Canvassers voted 4-0 to disallow the 137,000 signatures, and less than a week after MI Legalize submitted a total of more than 354,000 signatures. This surpasses the 65,987 needed for an initiative petition amending Oklahoma statues to be placed on the election ballot, according to a release from the Oklahoma Secretary of State and Native American Affairs. That equates to eight percent of the 824,831 ballots cast in the 2014 gubernatorial election.
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“It’s just part of the process that we have in place, it’s what we have to live with, and of course I’m anxious that we don’t have enough time to make the November ballot of this year”, Dorman said.
As required by law, the secretary of state’s office will send a report on its findings to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
“The [attorney general’s] office is very good at writing ballot titles”, she said.
“We’re disappointed but we always figured this would go to the state Supreme Court – and that’s where we’re headed” with an emergency appeal, said Jeff Hank, a Lansing lawyer who is chairman of MI Legalize.
“I will be shocked if (Attorney General) Scott Pruitt does not make some changes to the ballot title”, Dorman told KRMG Wednesday.
The next step will be notification to the media to announce publicly that any member of the public can challenge the signatures and/ or the proposed ballot title, within 10 business days, .
The proposal’s sponsor, David Couch, said he turned in 34,804 additional signatures Friday and that he’s confident the measure will qualify for a public vote.
Martin’s office earlier this year approved a competing medical marijuana proposal for the ballot.
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