A Senate Review

It’s been a busy few weeks, but this past week was especially long as we spent our time hearing and debating the remaining House bills eligible for our consideration on the Senate floor. We had to take action on these bills by Thursday, April 22 for them to continue in the process to become law. Of the approximately 320 bills eligible to be heard, we approved about 300 of them.

Two of my bills that would improve the accuracy and efficiency of our state elections have been approved by both the House and Senate, meaning they’ve now been sent to the governor’s desk.

The governor signed Senate Bill 712 last Wednesday, which authorizes the State Election Board to purchase and use electronic pollbooks to check-in voters at the polls. This technology will now allow voters to be verified and signed-in electronically, which will create a more efficient process when you go to cast your vote.

Utilizing electronic polls will reduce the risk that a voter is issued the wrong ballot or signs the wrong line on the precinct registry. Voters who try to check-in at the wrong polling place can be more efficiently directed to their correct polling place, which will help to reduce confusion and frustration, not to mention decrease the need for provisional ballots.

Our state is behind the eight ball on this piece of legislation. Thirty-six states across the United States are already using this technology, and I’m thrilled that Oklahoma will now be added to this list. I’m thankful for my colleague and House author, Rep. Dick Lowe, for helping me get this piece of legislation to the finish line.

SB 710 was signed into law by the governor last Friday. This measure authorizes our state to join the Electronic Registration Information Center, also known as ERIC, which is a multi-state partnership that utilizes datamatching tools to improve the accuracy of state voter registration lists. Through the ERIC database, states can securely share information from their voter registration systems, motor vehicle databases, death records and postal records.

This means if someone qualified to vote moves into Oklahoma, the State Election Board can send notifications about voter registration. If someone moves to a different town in the state, they can be notified that they’ll need to change their voter address so they can participate in local elections. If someone dies, the State Election Board will be notified so that name can be scrubbed from the list.

Once again, we’re behind on utilizing this technology in our election process. Thirty other states are already members of ERIC, including Texas, Missouri, Colorado and New Mexico. I’m glad the governor saw the importance of this measure, and thankful for the work Rep. Carl Newton did to carry this measure in the House.

I worked closely with the Secretary of our State Election Board, Paul Ziriax, on both of these measures. I’m confident they’ll make our already exceptional state election system even better and more efficient for all Oklahoma voters. Our state election board secretaries and poll workers work diligently throughout the year to conduct one of the safest and most secure election systems in the country, and I’m hopeful these measures will help them with creating new efficiencies moving forward.

Thank you for allowing me to be your voice at our state Capitol. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please reach out. You can contact me by email at Darcy.Jech@oksenate.gov or by phone at 405-521-5545.