Election Irregularities Noted In Oklahoma SD15 Primary - Robert Keyes

Robert Keyes ran for election to SD15 in Cleveland County as a Republican against Lisa Standridge in the primary this year. Fifty-one votes short of election, Keyes was fine with losing the election, but then got a call from a member of the Cleveland County GOP. That individual shared that he had found numerous anomalies in the election. Appalled at the sheer number of irregularities, Keyes wanted to file a complaint with the State Election Board (SEB) but realized that a simple recount would do little more than echo the report of the SEB, so he dug a bit deeper and found that he could file an Application For Irregularities. Keyes found this a very difficult process - so difficult in fact, that he called in attorneys. Here he explains a few of the anomalies his team found during their search.

OK State Election Board Policies Incompatible With OK Law; Robert Keyes

Robert Keyes ran for election to SD15 in Cleveland County as a Republican against Lisa Standridge in the primary this year. Fifty-one votes short of election, Keyes was fine with losing the election, but then got a call from a member of the Cleveland County GOP. That individual shared that he had found numerous anomalies in the election. Appalled at the sheer number of irregularities, Keyes wanted to file a complaint with the State Election Board (SEB) but realized that a simple recount would do little more than echo the report of the SEB, so he dug a bit deeper and found that he could file an Application For Irregularities. Keyes found this a very difficult process - so difficult in fact, that he called in attorneys. Here he explains what he did and the fact that what SEB does isn't always compatible with law.

Observations Of Poor Voter Rolls In Oklahoma County - ROPE Report Short

Michael and I talk about our specific experiences with the voter rolls in Oklahoma County. Michael from a candidate’s perspective during his run for Edmond School Board, and me from the time the Town of Luther (where I was Mayor for a term) decided to send out letters to ALL prospective voters, alerting them to the date of an upcoming vote to increase the sales tax. Unfortunately, both Michael and I had the same experience with the voter lists we received. Michael got a list of the voters in his district to knock doors and send literature, and I got a list of voters in my district to send letters to, from the Oklahoma County Election Board (OCEB). Michael had loads of voters on his ‘walk’ list that door knockers found to be not living at the addresses identified by the OCEB and Jenni had a stack of about a quarter of the total letters she sent returned because of wrong addresses.

It makes sense that a candidate with nefarious purpose, might be able to ‘test’ a list by sending out mailers to everyone on the list given him/her by their county election board. They could then check addresses returned to make sure people don’t live at the listed address, wait until election time, apply for an absentee ballot with that person’s information and vote like the person is still on the rolls at that address. In this way, people could illegally vote absentee – and how would they be caught doing so?

From my time on the Oklahoma County Election Board (OCEB), I can tell you that there would be no way for ballot counters to have any idea if the person voting absentee lived at the address listed on the envelope – absentee ballots are notarized to signify that the voter is who he/she says they are – but it doesn’t take a genius to understand that anyone can apply to be a notary.

At the OCEB in 2023 when I was a Board member, the way absentee ballots were processed, we never even knew if there were notaries notarizing more than the lawful maximum of 20. The ballots were never laid out in piles per notary, they were simply checked to make sure all lawful information was present on the envelope and removed to another room for removal of the envelope.

Many of the elections in Edmond (Ronda Peterson, Michael Grande, Margaret Best – to name a few) that I’ve followed have had Republican candidates win at the ballot box, but then lose the race by a few absentee ballots. It certainly seems plausible and one reason Oklahoma needs to clean up our voter rolls.

Because I didn’t make a video clip of Chris’ perspective, I asked him to send me some of his suggestions for making sure Oklahoma’s voter rolls are as clean as possible. 

Here’s what he sent:

Some of the things I would change are things we didn’t get into.  I’d get rid of partisan registration (and so also straight party voting) and in fact I’d favor doing away with partisan primaries altogether.  But that’s probably a different show that could also talk about open primaries, Top-Two jungle primaries, ranked-choice voting, election calendar reform, and that kind of stuff.

To be specific to the voter roll, I think it’d be really easy to add a question of “has your address changed?’ when voters sign the book at the polling place on Election Day and get that new address.  I’d also like to see an interstate voter roll integrity organization, but I’d like it to be limited to providing information for states to use as they see fit rather than dictating either to include or exclude voters.  But a major point that Wendi and I alluded to but didn’t really state straight out is that the voter rolls are always going to be heavily dependent upon the actions of individual voters.  All the laws in the world only work as well as people choosing to comply and if things are made too cumbersome it fuels the argument for a more wide-open system which is something I’m sure many people don’t want.

Wendi also sent me a follow-up with her ideas:

1. SHOW PHOTO ID when reregistering.
2. Reregister over 2 years and then archive the old rolls.
3. Issue the State Election Board funds to advertise the reregistration, including mailers, commercials on local tv and radio networks. 
4. Allow provisional ballots at the polls for the first presidential election after the reregistration deadline for those who still wish to vote but missed the above advertising.
5. Have special nursing home teams to get out and reregister the elderly and infirmed.

And here are Amber’s:

Election laws should be changed so that registered voters & candidates – through canvassing – can report voters not living at the address for which they are registered. 

The State Election Board should then go through the appropriate steps to verify the findings and remove the voter from the rolls once verified.

The voter rolls need to be cleaned more often, and the State Election Board needs to look at the rolls and go through the proper process to get correct lawfully physical addresses for voters on the rolls and remove any addresses violating O.S.26

After reading the blog and watching the videos, take some time to have a discussion with your duly elected Representative and Senator about this issue – even forward them this article. As Wendi pointed out so well in her closing, clean voter rolls containing only lawful entries are of upmost importance to – not only the security of Oklahoma elections – but the electoral process itself.

Find the full video on our Rumble and YouTube channels.

ROPE Report Live OK Voter Roll Re-Register Debate – Who Won?

Sorry to disappoint – that was a click-bait title (LOL) – but no one ‘won’ the debate. 

In fact, it was one of the best discussions we’ve had on the ROPE Report. Chairman of the Libertarian Party and Bethany City Council Board Member, Chris Powell, joined our friends Amber Evans and Wendi Montgomery Dial (OK State Director of Restore Liberty) to talk about whether or not voter rolls in Oklahoma need to be archived and all voters re-registered. 

We gave each of the three 5 minutes in a round robin to talk about why – or why not – the voter rolls should be re-registered. You can find the entire live broadcast on our YouTube and Rumble channels, but here is a wrap-up of the pro-position by Wendi. 

In the video, Wendi references a candidate challenge – of which Chris was a part, because the candidate was a Libertarian – adjudicated by the Oklahoma State Election Board during candidate filing earlier this year. Amber, Wendi, Michael and I talked specifically about this issue in our ROPE Report LIVE from April 26th of this year, starting at about 31 minutes in. 

It’s well worth the watch if you’re so inclined – very interesting information.

Find all the links in the blogpost here!

ROPE Report Short - When The FBI Raids Your House Over An Election Meme

In the absence of our regularly-scheduled guest, ROPE Regular Karmin Grider, Jenni and Michael discussed the curious situation of now-Congressional candidate, Robin Carder. Robin tells the story in her substack, Oklahoma Patriot (https://oklahomapatriot.substack.com/) of questioning several things about the 2020 Oklahoma election, getting goofy answers from the Secretary of the State Election Board and then creating a couple of memes in frustration, which were the impetus for an FBI raid on her home. Granted, the memes were not ones we would probably create, but they certainly fell under the First Amendment to the American Constitution which gives us the right to speak out about whatever we'd like in whatever way we'd like (so long as we aren't actively threatening people's lives or property). How close to a totalitarian state we are depends upon what you actually do to get noticed by the powers that be, apparently. Frankly, Robin's story should concern us all.

ROPE Report Short - OK Election Bills To Act On 3.11.24

PLEASE. CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE ASAP ABOUT THESE BILLS FOR THE WEEK OF 3.11.24!

Bills to support:

HJR 1048 Roberts. Put the question to the people on Ranked Choice Voting as a constitutional matter. 

HB3156 Roberts. Legislation to ban Ranked Choice Voting. 

HB3563 Banning. Moves school board elections to November. 

HB3717 O’Donnell. Voter Photo ID placed on registration card. 

HB3815 Dollens. Prohibiting foreign funding for ballot measures. 

HB3325 Staires. ONLY US Citizens and residents of Oklahoma can vote. Clarifies language. 

Bills to oppose:

HB4127 Swopes. County commissioners work with County Election Boards to allow county employees to work as precinct officials. Takes the elections out of the hands of citizens. Given the machine situation that’s a recipe for fixed machines if these employees are inspectors. The county officials can fix all races that way by threatening someone’s job. 

SB1989 Haste. Same as HB4127. 

Bills that were NOT HEARD in committee that we NEED:

SB2034 Dahm. Restricting absentee ballots. 

SB1659 Stewart. Reregistering Oklahomans to vote. 

A proof of citizenship or legal residency requirement on registration is an issue that may conflict with the National Voter Registration Act according to a judge in Kansas. 

I don’t think the NVRA was meant to protect the rights of non citizens to vote. And if it does it needs to be challenged in SCOTUS. PASS THE LAW. 

Election Integrity Bills - What Is Ranked-Choice Voting?

Wendi Montgomery Dial joins us to discuss the election bills she's following so far this 2024 session here in Oklahoma. Several of these regard Ranked-Choice Voting. Do you know what that is and how damaging it can be to the ability of citizens to exert their voice in Oklahoma elections? Watch this brief video to learn about Ranked-Choice voting and see the list of bills Wendi is following. To see the full list, check out our blog here: https://rope2.org/2024/02/11/election-integrity-bills-that-need-our-attention-as-of-2-11-24/

Amber and Terry Evans Describe Their Observations Of Oklahoma's Voter Rolls

Amber and Terry Evans became very concerned about election procedure after the 2020 elections. Quickly they became active in their local (Camanche) county GOP and began to watchdog their county Election Board. Over time, the Evans' began to download publicly available voter data from the Oklahoma State Election Board and began to find anomalies that concerned them. They believe the voter rolls are not being purged at the proper time and not fully enough. In addition, they say that they have found over 100 thousand entries from across the state that have no date on the voter registration.

Please see the videos posted to our YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJs_TZFP60  - or Rumble - https://rumble.com/v4acnfo-rope-report-live-amber-and-terry-evans-weve-looked-into-oklahomas-voter-rol.html - channels for the Evans' full interview.

ROPE2 is providing this podcast as a public service, but it is neither a legal interpretation nor a statement of ROPE2 policy. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on ROPE Report Live does not imply an endorsement of them, any entity they represent, or the veracity of any statements or claims they may make during the course of he podcast.

Wendi Dial - How Easy Is It To Change An Oklahoma Voter's Information On...

THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED BY ROPE! Here's why - we didn't go far enough into the voter portal on air. After speaking with Representative Eric Roberts, he ran and passed a bill to protect this information online. Now, if you go into the portal, you absolutely have to provide personal information to be able to change any of your voter information online. The only thing YOU CAN DO without signing in further is to request an absentee ballot. So...it only made sense to remove the video since it was INCORRECT. Thank you Representative Eric Roberts!

Wendi Dial - Oklahoma Voter Role Anomaly Investigation Requests Are Refused

State Director for Restore Liberty (https://restorelibertyoklahoma.substack.com/), Wendi Dial, Michael and Jenni talk about how when requests for investigations into voter role anomalies are made to the Oklahoma State Election Board, state officials wave them away. Why not investigate? Can't an investigation only prove that the state has the secure elections it says it has? Couldn't an investigation make Oklahoma voters feel more secure in their vote? What plausible explanation can there be for pushing back against an investigation?