Turnout excuse doesn’t hold water By Jonathan Small In a statewide election, Oklahoma voters strongly rejected State Question 832, which would have dramatically increased the minimum wage in perpetuity, by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent.
Now SQ 832 supporters are blaming their loss on the vote being held in June. That’s nonsense.
There were 630,488 votes cast in the SQ 832 race. That’s far more than the 297,426 votes cast in the June 2024 primary elections. This year’s turnout is also higher than in June 2022, the last time both parties had gubernatorial primaries. In 2022, the June primaries drew 538,505 voters.
Apparently, we’re supposed to believe an election drawing 538,505 voters is valid for choosing gubernatorial nominees but an election drawing 630,488 voters should be dismissed as not representing the will of the voters.
Notably, in this year’s primary elections now-Democratic gubernatorial nominee Cyndi Munson received more votes (129,225) than the firstplace finisher in the Republican primary, which now goes to a runoff. The argument that Democrats were unmotivated to turn out makes no sense.
Many who back SQ 832 also supported SQ 802, which expanded Medicaid to provide taxpayer- funded insurance to able-bodied but nonworking adults. Both state questions were placed on a June primary ballot. But where the minimum wage proposal was soundly rejected, Medicaid expansion passed by a sliver in 2020, receiving 50.49 percent of the vote to 49.51 percent.
The Medicaid question was soundly rejected by in-person, election-day voters as well as majorities in 70 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties. It passed only because of an unusually high level of mail-in ballots.
Yet many people dismissing the vote on SQ 832 refer to SQ 802’s passage as a “mandate.”
Those complaining about the minimum-wage question being placed on a June ballot do not raise the same objection to SQ 788, which legalized “medical” marijuana in June 2018.
Those who ran the minimum- wage campaign want to blame their failure on the election’s timing. Their argument defies logic. The minimum-wage proposal can’t be wildly popular if it doesn’t motivate people to vote.
SQ 832 failed because Oklahoma voters weighed the pros and cons and then rejected it. The measure would have more than doubled Oklahoma’s minimum wage to $15 by 2029—and then kept raising the mandate every year based on the cost of living in places like New York City. For good reason, Oklahomans worried that would fuel inflation.
Oklahomans were also worried about the elimination of common-sense exemptions for teenagers, farm and ranch jobs, and part-time workers. Those exemptions have been supported by officials in both political parties for decades with good reason.
SQ 832 supporters should acknowledge the obvious: The minimumwage proposal did not fail because of its timing. It failed because Oklahomans had good reason to vote no.
Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (www.ocpathink.org).