Election Corruption by the Soft on
Crime Supporters of SQ 780 and 781
Few state questions had the potential for damage for society and public order than SQ 780 and 781. They turned many, many, felonies into misdemeanors including carrying or using date rape drugs, possessing or selling drugs on or near a school ground, park, or playground, made shoplifters happy by increasing the requirement for felony charges to over $1000.00 per occurrence so a shoplifter could hit ten stores a day for $9999.00 and walk away laughing if caught, and a host of other property crimes. Then the "savings" from diverting these criminal convictions from state prisons is "calculated" and the money distributed to "non profits" like Kris Steel's TEAM or other contractors that manage drug treatment or other diversion programs.
The practical effect is a huge rise in misdemeanors, flooding the county and city jails, while keeping criminals out on the streets. However, in their zeal to pass these two state questions the ACLU, Oklahoma County D.A. David Prater, former Speaker Kris Steel, and the other liberals appear to have relied upon massive corruption and fraud in gathering the signatures for the state question petitions.
Around 80,000 votes needed for each initiative but signers could sign both petitions for the two state questions. The ACLU and the local allies used paid signature collectors that can generate between 62 and 200 signatures a day depending upon the venue they are working. One side of the form is the signature page carrying twenty lines to record the voter's info. There are rules, all info MUST be on a single line or the signature gets thrown out. The address must be a street address of a legally registered Oklahoma voter. The signature gatherer must sign the back of the form in the presence of a Notary Public stating that the signatures were gathered in the presence of the person, that the signature gatherer was over 18 years old, and that the signatures were all from registered Oklahoma voters.
The signers see a felony notice at the top of the form stating that their own name and address must be used, that it is a felony to sign a petition more than once, or to sign the petition if they are not a legally registered voter.
The Notary Public has the responsibility to take a valid picture ID from the affidant that presents the signatures for notarization, that the affidavit is sworn and signed in the Notary's presence, and to provide information covering his commission number, expiration date, name and address listed at the Secretary of State corresponding to that commission number, and either stamping or using a dry seal embossing stamp to show that the document was duly notarized. The signature MUST match the exact name used to register as a Notary Public and as this is a legal document generated by an appointee of the State of Oklahoma the document must be clear and free of extraneous markings, revisions, or changes. No initials added or omitted, the exact full name as registered. The signature of the Notary MUST be his original signature and the Notary is warned by state law to keep a journal or record of all documents notarized including if the person was present, the type of ID used to verify the affiant, and dates and locations where the notarization was done.
One day was spent checking a single page of the thousands of signature sheets, checking the names and addresses for voter registration and recent felony convictions. Of the 20 names on one sheet exactly half of the names do not show up in the voter registration data base and the copy we used to check was brand new shortly before the petition signing got underway. A few could have registered between March and June 2016 , but other than that it is hard to see how they wouldn't be on the state list of voters. Each person's name and address was verified using Google, if that failed the address was ran through the House of Representatives voter district engine which kicked out a state representative district and keywords from the name and address were used to search the entire House District data base.
There were three felons out of 20 signatures with another three or four where the printed name wasn't legible enough to verify the exact spelling so there might be more felons. Of the three confirmed felons two are recent and still ongoing or on probation (can't register to vote) and the other appeared to have gotten off probation in 2014 although most felons believe they can't vote after a sentence so they don't bother to register. One of the felons was registered to vote and when he signed the petition he had violation notices out on his suspended sentence and there is still an active warrant out for his arrest as we write this article. The point being that with his felony conviction suspended sentence still running and accelerated and a warrant out for his arrest he was not eligible to register to vote but his name and address appear on the state voting registration list.
A good case to look at to see the law in action against initiative petition fraud was the TABOR state question back in the early 2000's where the opponents pushed and got prosecutions for initiative petition fraud because out of state signature gatherers had been hired through other companies. The case was eventually overturned by a higher court but the problems with the affidavits and signature gatherers were the same as the soft on crime state questions.
Below are pictures of actual affidavits showing alteration, missing Notary seals (a misdemeanor), double notarized affidavits sometimes weeks apart in date of notarization, changed signature gatherer names, over written names and addresses, and even affidavits signed by a Notaries that had been convicted of felonies and were no longer legal Notary Publics. Some of these Notaries have recent application dates showing that they were probably set up as Notary Publics for the purpose of signing these ACLU backed signature affidavits.
Double different signature on affidavit
Crossed out signature gatherer name on affidavit, changed address, changed date, changed notary expiration date
Convicted felon signature gatherer, convicted felon notary, double notarized, missing seal on first notarization, incomplete name on notary signature, changed date five weeks later
Double notarized, convicted felon original notary, changed date 30 days later, improper sigature on original notary, no seal on original notary
Double notarized, no seal on original notarization, changed date, any faint seal showing is actually from another notarized affidavit below the one being photographed.
No seal, convicted felon notary, no signature on original notary, changed date 30 days later, double notarized
Signature name changed with old name scratched through, notarized in Oklahoma City with Broken Arrow based signature gatherer
Gatherer's name, address and signature overwritten with new name, address, and signature
There were some unusually high performers amount the signature gatherers with hundreds of pages of signatures gathered allegedly by one person. Then there were entire teams of out of state professional signature gatherers that were hired on contracts paid by the ACLU and local supporters like Prater and Kris Steel that called for only 10,000 signatures for a contract of a dozen professional signature gatherers. How is it that one person can gather 6 to 8 thousand signatures on his own in just 90 days?
Worse, there are multiple instances of signature pages being notarized on the same day in both Tulsa AND Oklahoma City, by the same signature gatherer. Now a trip from OKC to Tulsa and back is going to set you back half of the day at a minimum and why would a busy worker getting paid $2.00 per signature notarize half of his sheets in Tulsa and drive to Oklahoma City to find another notary for the other half of his sheets? He wouldn't of course, that is evidence that the sheets were mailed in un-notarized and notarized out of the presence of the original signer.
The end result is a mass of evidence that proves that the signature gatherers did not likely witness every signature, that they mailed in signed affidavits to Oklahoma City and Tulsa for after the fact notarization in violation of the law, that affidavits were changed, written over, information scratched out, and new names and addresses filled in for a different person other than the original signature gatherer, and that there was massive, massive notarial fraud used. Worse, the Secretary of State that was responsible for counting and verifying these 6,000 pages of signatures was so incompetent or crooked that they overlooked massive and obvious fraud. Once you realize that it is the proponent of the State Question that provides the "counters" to the Secretary of State you realize that the fraud is institutionalized and probably present in most other state questions.
Can SQ 780 and 781 be overturned by the investigation and prosecution of this massive fraud upon Oklahoma voters? Possibly, maybe not, that will remain to be seen. But what can happen is sending some soft on crime crooks to prison or correctly labeling them as felons for the rest of their lives and giving the legislature the political cover to repeal the worst parts of these soft on crime laws.
