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Citing Constituents' Marijuana Concerns, Lawmaker Wants to Raise the Bar for Initiative Petitions

Oklahomans may be asked to vote on making it harder to get citizens’ proposals on a ballot.

Rep. John Enns said he introduced House Bill 1603 because his rural constituents feel like their voices are being drowned out by the state’s population centers.

"It switches the signatures from being a statewide deal to a countywide deal. So, every county you have to get the 15 percent signatures," Enns said.

Constitutional amendments require the support of 15 percent of legal voters to get on a ballot, while initiatives need 8 and referendums 5. Enns' bill also strikes a provision defining "legal voters" as the total number cast in the last gubernatorial election, meaning those proportions would be based on all registered voters in a county.

Enns said his constituents are worried about one issue in particular.

"A lot of what’s going on around some of these other states, legalization of recreational marijuana, has been done through initiative petition. And they’re like, 'Uh, we don’t want to see that happen in Oklahoma,'" Enns said.

Rep. David Perryman said Enns' proposal would force citizens to get many more signatures than they need to now.

"At a time when this body, this legislature is gridlocked, we shouldn’t be cutting off the peoples’ access to have the ability to move legislation forward or to question on a referendum process," Perryman said.

HB1603 made it out of the House Rules Committee this week on a 6–4 vote. If approved by the legislature, it would be sent to a vote of the people.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.