Senate Bill 523, which passed by a 35-8 vote, specifies that only the Legislature can settle legal matters that would alter election procedures.

Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, one of the authors, said during a debate in the Senate on Monday that the bill has been in the works for several years and is meant to clarify what is already written in the constitution.

“In Oklahoma, the constitution and the U.S. Constitution both say that the time, place and manner of elections shall be set by state legislatures,” said Paxton. “It has happened in other states to where lawsuits have been settled by people who are not the Legislature. This goes in and clarifies that the only entity in Oklahoma that has the ability to change state election laws is the Oklahoma State Legislature. It would not allow any type of election board, secretary anywhere, or any executive branch member to go in and settle a lawsuit. It would say that duty rests with where the constitution says it does and that’s with us.”

Sen. Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, who cast one of the dissenting votes, said she worried the bill could put a state employee in violation of federal law if the federal law required the state to conduct its elections in a way that went against state law.

Paxton said the bill did not apply to federal actions.

“This bill doesn’t change anything to do with federal law. This bill deals with what would happen at the state level,” Paxton said.

Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, another dissenting vote, said her concern was if a judge found something within the state’s election proceedings to be unconstitutional, it could take another election cycle before the Legislature was able to reconvene and address that.

“With this change, we could defer justice for an entire election cycle if an injustice was found, like for instance a discriminatory practice toward disabled folks trying to vote, they might miss an entire election until this might get fixed with this change,” said Kirt. “That’s my concern about this bill. I think we’re setting ourselves up to have a delay even if we find something’s egregiously bad.”

Paxton said the speaker and pro tem could both be given standing to challenge something in court related to election procedure. 

“In other states you’ve had people who are not elected to office that settled lawsuits that were brought right before an election that significantly changed the election processes in those states and with that it also changed the fact that people’s confidence in the election was shaken. The fact that our election laws have been deliberated through this body, passed this body, signed by a governor, makes these where people are secure with our elections. We need to keep our elections safe and accurate as they are in Oklahoma,” Paxton said.

Originally published by The Center Square. Republished with permission.