Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: He's time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 1: Caitelan when you trust. And today we're going to be
Speaker 1: talking about a state question that's going to appear on
Speaker 1: about it coming to your area soon.
Speaker 2: It's about open primaries.
Speaker 1: And it is called a state question number eight thirty six.
Speaker 1: And I believe we have Pat McFerrin on with us,
Speaker 1: and Pat, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great, Thanks Tom.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you very much. Now you've been doing this
Speaker 1: for more than a minute. It got like thirty years
Speaker 1: of election and grassroots lobbying and a few other things
Speaker 1: and research going here for you. But talking to you
Speaker 1: on the phone, it sounds like you ain't old enough
Speaker 1: to been around anywhere near thirty years doing things like that.
Speaker 2: Oh, young fellow, I have been.
Speaker 3: I graduated from Nowaha High School back in nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: six and started working in politics about that time.
Speaker 1: My goodness sake, tell us a little bit about some
Speaker 1: of the things you've been up to as far as that.
Speaker 1: I see you've worked on some presidential things too.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, we were the only pollster that Donald Trump
Speaker 3: used in his twenty sixteen election cycle. Now during the
Speaker 3: primary campaign, now, he doesn't believe too much in polls,
Speaker 3: so he didn't use us very often, but we were
Speaker 3: the only ones that he used. And dating back to
Speaker 3: Bob Dole's campaign and others, we've done quite a few
Speaker 3: presidential races, but Oklahoma has always been home, and I've
Speaker 3: been very proud of everything we've done here, ranging from
Speaker 3: members of Congress Frank Keating's gubernatorial campaigns. Right to work
Speaker 3: here in alcohol and in grocery stores a few years
Speaker 3: ago is another state question we worked on.
Speaker 1: Well. This state question is a little bit interesting because
Speaker 1: there are some states that have so called the open primaries,
Speaker 1: and that definition can change from state to state. I've
Speaker 1: lived in states where they've had so called open primaries
Speaker 1: where you know, you could jump across the line and
Speaker 1: vote either Republican Democrat, Independent or Socialist Worker Party or
Speaker 1: left handed banjo picker Party, whatever one you wanted, and
Speaker 1: it really didn't make any difference. But what he's lined
Speaker 1: up here is a little bit different than what I'm
Speaker 1: used to seeing. Can you explain a little bit about
Speaker 1: what's being proposed?
Speaker 3: Yes, and you're right, there is some confusion here, and
Speaker 3: that's one of reason why we want to have these
Speaker 3: kinds of conversations. There are some states that claim to
Speaker 3: have open primaries, but from a legal definition that really
Speaker 3: semi open. And that's where you go in on election
Speaker 3: day and you pick, am I going to vote in
Speaker 3: the Republican primary or am I going to vote the
Speaker 3: Democratic primary or one of the other minor parties. And
Speaker 3: that's kind of how Texas does at Virginia Missouri, and
Speaker 3: I want to be very clear, that is not what
Speaker 3: we're doing. I don't like those types of primaries because
Speaker 3: I think it leads to gainsmanship, it leads to chaos. Yeah, well,
Speaker 3: what happens that, for example, only one Democrats running, The
Speaker 3: Democrats might all decide to vote in the Republican primary
Speaker 3: to nominate the weakest person or vice versa. And I
Speaker 3: don't think that's how you get good government. Think they
Speaker 3: can get representative government. What we're doing is a truly
Speaker 3: open primary where we kind of do away with the
Speaker 3: artisan primaries. Now people still Republicans and Democrats are still
Speaker 3: on the ballot, but you go in and you vote
Speaker 3: for the one person in that race you like, if
Speaker 3: it's a Republican or a Democrat, independent, or the left
Speaker 3: hand banjo picking parties.
Speaker 2: There you go, and.
Speaker 3: The top two will then face off in November. So
Speaker 3: the Democrats have to vote for the Democrats and want
Speaker 3: the Democrat to advance. So the Republicans have to vote
Speaker 3: for a Republican if they want to. But you can't
Speaker 3: end up where you'd have two Republicans in November, or
Speaker 3: you know, in some places in Oklahoma maybe if two Democrats,
Speaker 3: generally two Republicans being in your November ballot.
Speaker 1: So this kind of goes against the old one and
Speaker 1: done thing that we've been seeing from time to time.
Speaker 3: Correct it does. I mean right now in Oklahoma, more
Speaker 3: than ninety five percent of our elections are essentially decided
Speaker 3: in the primary of the runoff time they are November election.
Speaker 3: November elections don't matter in Oklahoma right now, and it's
Speaker 3: causing turnout to decrease. In fact, in the presidential elections
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty and twenty twenty four, Oklahoma was fiftieth
Speaker 3: in the nation in voter turnout, fiftieth.
Speaker 2: In the nation, and voter turnout Oklahoma was.
Speaker 3: Yes, woll In reality, it's because the elections don't matter.
Speaker 3: I mean, you look at the county offices we had
Speaker 3: last time. Out of all the county offices we filled
Speaker 3: more than three hundred statewide, there was only one that
Speaker 3: was what political scientists say was an election of consequence.
Speaker 3: In November, only one race in the entire state from sheriff, clerk,
Speaker 3: county commissioners was decided by less than ten points in November.
Speaker 3: Everything else was decided earlier, I mean, and we had
Speaker 3: some real anomalies down in Carter County, which is are
Speaker 3: and more. Only two Republicans filed for sheriff. They got
Speaker 3: the exact same vote count in that Republican primary in June.
Speaker 3: No Independent could vote, no Democrat could vote, and it's
Speaker 3: a small group of Republicans, but they tied. And so
Speaker 3: but instead of allowing more people to vote, they drew
Speaker 3: a name out of a hat. That's how they picked
Speaker 3: a sheriff. And I just don't think that's the best
Speaker 3: way to run a county, run a state.
Speaker 2: This is interesting.
Speaker 1: So when does this question that come up on the ballot, Well, that's.
Speaker 3: Yet that's yet to be determined. We're still kind of
Speaker 3: at early stages. But it is such a paradigm shift
Speaker 3: where we're wanting to talk to folks about it. It's
Speaker 3: it's been challenged at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. We filed
Speaker 3: our initiatives, so we have not yet collected signatures. We
Speaker 3: hoped to like signatures later this year, and our goal
Speaker 3: is to be on the November twenty sixth ballots.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, very good. So you're talking to people. I
Speaker 2: know that.
Speaker 1: I know that you're going to a lot of different
Speaker 1: civic clubs and one here in particular in Bartlesville.
Speaker 2: Tell us about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to be at the Daybreak Rotary at
Speaker 3: Second Crossing. I think it's two fifteen East Second Downtown
Speaker 3: at seven am on Friday morning. We're all be able
Speaker 3: to spend more time explaining what our system is and
Speaker 3: answering anybody's specific questions they have.
Speaker 1: Now, some folks are going to conflate this with another
Speaker 1: thing that Alaska does, where the well we'll have a
Speaker 1: whole herd of candidates and sometimes it just kind of
Speaker 1: looked weird. Is this anything like that?
Speaker 3: Now? Now that's called rank choice.
Speaker 2: Rank choice. I lose. I couldn't remember the phrase.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's but that's now, that's not what they said.
Speaker 3: Everybody will vote for one person, just like we had
Speaker 3: the day and what it might sound strange, the reality
Speaker 3: is every municipality in our state uses this type of
Speaker 3: system where you you know, if you have a mayor's
Speaker 3: election or city council election, you know, you go and
Speaker 3: you vote, and then if nobody gets a majority of
Speaker 3: the top two, then face off in the next round.
Speaker 3: That's really all we're doing. So it's not that strange.
Speaker 3: Now ours is different from that, and that we will
Speaker 3: still have party labels. Whatever party you're registered with will
Speaker 3: be shown, so the voters have that information.
Speaker 2: Got it? Got it? Got it?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: You know I can tell you right now, media people
Speaker 1: meaning that the volks who do digital ads, radio, TV
Speaker 1: and even the archaic print folks are saying, bring it
Speaker 1: on because they get two elections instead of one.
Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, I'm just being that's good, no,
Speaker 3: but I mean I think it hits their real point
Speaker 3: here is that every voter is going to get more information,
Speaker 3: and I think that higher information flow is important. I mean,
Speaker 3: the reality is right now, three to five percent of
Speaker 3: the people are making all the decisions. You know, just
Speaker 3: rough numbers here, a state senator represents ninety thousand.
Speaker 2: Individuals, and if you.
Speaker 3: Get three thousand votes in a primary you're going to win.
Speaker 3: I don't think you can find a single case if
Speaker 3: somebody can more than three thousand votes and not winning
Speaker 3: that primary. And that's only you know, that's a that's
Speaker 3: just three and a half percent of all the folks.
Speaker 3: And so this leads to more civic engagement. There are
Speaker 3: a few states that use a system like this, Louisianay
Speaker 3: and one that's kind of similar to it Washington State.
Speaker 3: I'm not certain about Hawaii. It could be, but it
Speaker 3: leads to higher voter turnout, greater participation. And I think
Speaker 3: fundamentally we're at a crisis in this nation and the
Speaker 3: state where we have such little faith in our institutions.
Speaker 3: It's because I think so few people are engaged and involved.
Speaker 3: I think the higher involvement and engagement will be a
Speaker 3: piece of rebuilding that faith and everything that.
Speaker 2: We have very good. I've had some people kind of
Speaker 2: tug at my.
Speaker 1: Coat tails and say, well, you know what this is
Speaker 1: it gives a party that doesn't feel like it's being
Speaker 1: represented a chance to pick. What they would feel is
Speaker 1: the less, you know, the least vigorous of the candidates.
Speaker 1: You know, somebody who might be a little too leaning
Speaker 1: a certain way, but the way you're phrasing it, this
Speaker 1: gives people, all people a choice.
Speaker 3: Right, And I think that argument would be accurate if
Speaker 3: it were if we were proposing that semi open primary.
Speaker 3: We talked about what they do in Texas or someplace elf.
Speaker 3: But that's not all we're looking at here. So I
Speaker 3: understand that confusion. I'm not sure all of it, all
Speaker 3: of that criticism is legitimate. I think there are some
Speaker 3: folks that understand it. Would still like to promote that
Speaker 3: talking point. Sure, I mean that's not what we're doing.
Speaker 2: Very very good.
Speaker 1: So once again, Daybreak Roadary seven o'clock this Friday, and
Speaker 1: that is a crossing second right here in Bartlesville and
Speaker 1: our hometown got from no one A will be there
Speaker 1: and you'll be answering some questions and of course giving
Speaker 1: you know, some factual things about this, much like we've
Speaker 1: done right here.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Is there a website or other places online people can
Speaker 1: perhaps to look this up and maybe do some reading
Speaker 1: before they come in so they can ask you some questions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you can just look for yes on eight
Speaker 3: thirty six website and also Facebook page. Probably the easiest
Speaker 3: way to do that, just look for yes on eight
Speaker 3: thirty six dot com or Google Google Yes, stay question
Speaker 3: eight thirty six any say, as long as you get
Speaker 3: the eight thirty six in there, you'll you'll be able
Speaker 3: to find it, all right.
Speaker 1: That sounds pretty darkn good. So that's that's all we got.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I appreciate you being with us
Speaker 1: here today and talking to us about the eight thirty six.
Speaker 1: I want to thank you very much for being here
Speaker 1: with us. It's a pleasure having you on board. Can't
Speaker 1: wait to see you. Thank this Friday.
Speaker 3: Thank you for the opportunity, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you for