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Immigrants Deserve to Be Here
The Oklahoma Senate just passed HB4156, which is a major anti-immigration bill, that is now headed to the Governor's desk for him to sign or veto. This Oklahoma bill is modeled after a recent Texas law that has been making headlines:
You can expect to see many more headlines about the Oklahoma law soon because while the Texas law is bad, the Oklahoma version is worse. HB4156 includes minimal safeguards and creates a terrifying environment for immigrants living or even just traveling through Oklahoma.
WE STILL HAVE TIME TO STOP IT.
Governor Stitt has the power to veto HB4156. He knows that the bill is bad for Oklahoma because it will stifle economic growth in Oklahoma, especially in the industries that rely on immigrant workers: agriculture, construction, and others.
The U.S. needs immigration reform, but HB4156 doesn't do anything to address immigration. All this bill does is scare off immigrants living in Oklahoma, weaken our economy, and sow distrust in our communities and with law enforcement.
Use the link above to contact Governor Stitt's office and ask him to VETO HB4156.
If you'd prefer to call rather than email, that's even better! His office number is (405) 521-2342.
U.S. Citizenship 101
We recently visited with one of our supporters, Bruce Caplinger, who teaches U.S. citizenship classes in the OKC metro area, about the citizenship process. You can listen to our interview with Bruce below, as well as read more about the citizenship test and interview questions. If you’d like to get involved with Bruce or Community Literacy Centers, you can contact him at brucecap@gmail.com or (405) 757-5589.
What is a County Clerk (and why should you care)?
There’s a special election for Oklahoma County Clerk on April 4th, but not many folks are talking about it, so that’s what we will do here. Most voters want to know four things:
What does the County Clerk do, exactly?
Who are the candidates running for the position?
Why should I vote?
When and where can I vote?
Let’s tackle those questions one at a time:
WHAT IS A COUNTY CLERK?
The County Clerk is like the office manager of the county government. The position might seem a bit boring, but it’s vitally important to our daily lives. Here are some of the key responsibilities:
Budget Board
The County Clerk is one of 8 members of the Oklahoma County Budget Board. The board votes on budgeting recommendations for the county. This includes the budget of the Oklahoma County Jail and the Sheriff’s office and how to spend federal funding coming into the county.Meeting Secretary
The County Clerk serves as secretary for all county meetings. This includes running the technology (computers, projectors, Zoom, etc.) for the meetings and taking minutes during the meeting.Making & Receiving Payments
The County Clerk handles the county’s monthly payroll, pension payments to retirees, and payments to vendors who supply materials to the county.Government Transparency
The County Clerk is responsible for ensuring government transparency throughout the county by managing meeting notices from all local government entities and boards to ensure they comply with the Open Meetings Act. Without these notices, the public wouldn’t know when public bodies are meeting or what they will discuss!Registrar of Deeds
The County Clerk is the ex-officio Registrar of Deeds - basically, the “Keeper of the Paperwork” for all kinds of stuff in the county, such as:All city charters
Divorce decrees (when real estate is involved)
Other final decrees
An accurate and up-to-the-minute record of every piece of property
Powers of attorney
A record of all military discharges
Trust agreements
Processing and Maintaining Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Filings
WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR THIS POSITION?
Derrick Scobey is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in northeast Oklahoma City. According to his campaign website, Scobey serves on the Alzheimer's Association Board of Oklahoma, Sunbeam Early Childhood Services Committee, BLAC Inc. (Black Liberated Arts Center), Criminal Justice Authority Citizens Advisory Board, and the Stephenson Cancer Center African American Cancer Research Community Advisory Board.
He lives with his wife, Angela Bush Scobey, in Edmond. They have five children.
You can learn more about him and his priorities here.
Maressa Treat is the former finance director for U.S. Senator James Lankford’s re-election campaign and worked in his personal office as director of state outreach. According to her campaign website, she previously worked for the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce and currently serves on the board of the Oklahoma YWCA.
She lives with her husband, Greg Treat, who is President Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma State Senate, in northwest Oklahoma County. They have three children.
You can learn more about her and her priorities here.
WHEN & WHERE CAN I VOTE?
Election day is April 4th, and all the usual voting options remain available:
Early: You can vote early in person at the County Election Board on Thursday 3/30 and Friday 3/31 from 8am to 6pm. There is no early voting available on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
Election Day: You can vote on April 4th at your regular local polling place. Polls will be open from 7am to 7pm.
By Mail: The deadline to request an absentee ballot has already passed. If you have already received an absentee ballot, you can drop it off at the county election board by 5pm the day before the election. You can also return it by mail, but it must be received by the county election board by 7pm on election day.
make a plan to vote
As always, we encourage you to make a voting plan ahead of time. Many people like to put a reminder in their phones so that they don’t forget. Decide how & when you’re going to vote, and then go do it.
remind your friends
Take 30 seconds right now to send this blog post to 3 friends and encourage them to vote. Not because chain letters are making a comeback, but because the most powerful way to increase turnout is for you to remind your friends.
Remember: Decisions are made by those who show up. Let’s rock that vote!
Top 5 ways to be involved during the legislative session
Remember: progress isn’t a spectator sport!
The legislative session is a busy time for lawmakers. They are working on many different bills and trying to make sure that the laws we have in place are effective. While it can be tempting to stay home and watch from the sidelines, there are many ways you can get involved and make your voice heard. Here are the top 5 ways you can be involved during the legislative session:
TRACK LEGISLATION ONLINE
Keeping track of upcoming bills and changes in laws does not have to be a difficult or time-consuming task. If you already know a bill number, you can use the state legislature’s website to track it, but it’s not very user-friendly. Instead, we recommend using sites like LegiScan (free) or BillTrack50 (paid) to find and track proposed legislation that deal with the issues you care about. Both systems will send you email alerts as bills move through the legislative process (although sometimes that’s too late to take action!)
With that said, sorting through hundreds (or thousands) of bills can be time-consuming, and, let’s face it, often legislation isn’t written in a way that’s clear or easy to understand. Fortunately, there are dozens of organizations that exist for this purpose, which is why our next recommendation is…
Get involved with grassroots advocacy groups
Joining a grassroots advocacy group is a great way to stay involved with the legislative process. Through this type of organization, you'll be part of a larger movement for social change. By working with other passionate individuals, you can help spread important information and ideas about awareness, participation, and even protest locally. You don't need to have any experience either - by getting involved with a grassroots advocacy group, you can learn the skills necessary to promote your cause.
There are local advocacy groups for just about every issue and cause - public education, health care, LGBTQ rights, children, food security, criminal justice reform, voting rights, budget and taxation, economic development, and more. Many topics have advocacy groups on “both sides” of the issue, so be mindful when signing up. If you need help finding the organization(s) working on a particular issue, feel free to contact us and we’ll get you connected.
Contact legislators in support or opposition of a bill
Once you know what bills are being considered and where they are in the process, contacting your state legislators is an easy and effective way to ensure your voice is heard in the political process. Taking a few minutes out of your day to reach out with an email, letter, or even a phone call can be a powerful way to influence legislative decisions. No matter the size of the issue you are passionate about, making contact with those who are in office can be impactful. By voicing your opinion on a particular bill either in support or opposition, you’re helping to ensure that elected officials understand what matters to constituents like you and me in our community.
Use this form to look up your state legislators. It will give you their office phone number and links to their email, website, and social media pages, if they have them.
If the bill you are tracking is assigned to a particular committee, it may be more effective to contact members of that committee. Again, grassroots organizations can be particularly helpful in giving you talking points and steering you toward specific members who may be most receptive to hearing from you.
Write a letter to the editor
Writing a letter to the editor is a great way to get your message out and make your voice heard on issues that are important to you. Before writing, it’s essential to research the topic thoroughly so that you can provide informed and accurate information in your letter. This includes examining both sides of an argument and assessing the potential outcomes. Most newspapers now require letters to be submitted online, and many have limits on how long the letter can be. Remember: you’re writing for a broad audience - the general public - so be thoughtful in how to frame your argument.
SEE THE LEGISLATURE IN ACTION
Attending a committee meeting or floor session at the Capitol can be an eye-opening experience. It gives you the unique opportunity to see democracy in action as people from all angles of life come together to bring their voices and expertise to the table. Watching officials discuss ideas and pass motions can invigorate your sense of civic duty and help you feel more connected to the issue. You’ll begin to understand the personalities and perspectives of some legislators, and that insight will help you be more effective at building relationships with them and advocating in the future. You'll likely leave feeling energized and proud that you've been able to contribute to something greater than yourself.
If you are unable to visit the Capitol in person, don’t worry - all committee meetings and floor sessions are streamed live on the House and Senate websites.
What are you going to do today to make your voice heard on the issues that matter to you?
CIVICS CON 2022 will be held June 10-11 in Norman, OK
Join us for CIVICS CON 2022 on June 10-11 at the Sarkeys Energy Center in Norman, OK. The event is free for all attendees, and breakfast and lunch will be provided both days.
The theme of this year's event is "GeoCivics: Designing Stronger Communities" - many sessions will address how geography and maps affect fair representation, where we live, how we vote, and other things. Here are some of the topics that the presenters will cover:
Mapping Greenwood: Using Data to Reveal Untold Stories
Communities and Redistricting
Drawing Your Own District
Migration and Oklahoma
Population: Oklahomans on the Move
Creating Brave Classroom Spaces
Classroom as Deep Democracy
Using the Geo-Inquiry Process to Understand Wildland Urban Interface
Power to the People: The Ins and Outs of Oklahoma's Ballot Initiative Process
Teach Broadly, Engage Locally: Using Project-Based Pedagogy to Encourage Civic Involvement
Using the Oklahoma Giant Map to Understand the Heavy Consequences of Light Pollution
While Civics Con is designed for all people, this year we partnered with several educational organizations to ensure that many sessions are created by educators and for educators. We know that civic engagement starts with civic education, and this is a great opportunity to foster that growth from the beginning.
Five Years Later...the Same Problems Are Back
Five years ago today, a group of strangers gathered in room 412-A of the Oklahoma State Capitol. Many had never been inside the building before and most weren’t sure what to expect. Some wore suits and seemed right at home in the halls of power; others were in jeans and t-shirts, glancing around furtively and wondering if they were in the right place.
The group shared a common purpose: to build relationships with their elected officials and with one another and, hopefully, do their part to nudge the state toward responsible policy decisions that would plug the state’s enormous $1.3 billion budget shortfall and prevent absolutely devastating cuts to core services.
The event was called “Let’s Fix This: A Day at the Capitol For Regular Folks,” and the description went like this:
This is a day for us regular folks who care about our state and our communities to take some time off of work and actually meet face-to-face with our state legislators about the state budget crisis. We've all been complaining about stuff on social media long enough; now let's have the conversations in person. The state may be broke, but we're not broken - there are a lot of totally reasonable, common-sense solutions for increasing revenue available. We just need to encourage our lawmakers toward them.
This isn't a rally...it's more of a group outing. If you've never been to the Capitol before, that's fine. I've never done this kind of thing before either, so we can hold hands or something. Maybe it'll be 50 of us that show up. Maybe it'll be 100 or 200. Or, heck, maybe this crazy idea of having face-to-face conversations with the men and women who are paid to represent us will catch fire and we'll have 1,000 people show up. That would be pretty amazing. (We can still all hold hands if you want.)
Remember: Decisions are made by people who show up. I hope you'll be one of them.
That $1.3 billion budget shortfall that sparked our first event in 2016 was caused, in large part, by the state legislature giving out tax cuts just as our state was starting to recover from the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Five years later, here we are again—our economy is beginning to rebound from COVID-19, the federal government has pitched in some money to help out, and yet again our state legislators are talking about cutting taxes.
I mean, I get it—everybody likes a tax cut. But we’ve been down this road before and we know how it ends. If you want to know what Oklahoma would look like if we dramatically cut taxes, just look around—this is it, we’re living in it. Adjusted for inflation, the Oklahoma state budget is 25% smaller than it was 20 years ago. That means we spend 25% less on the things that matter most to Oklahomans—education, public health, roads, and public safety. Continuing to reduce our state revenue isn’t how we become a Top Ten State, especially not right now when we’re already in such a precarious position.
We can think of no better or more meaningful way to celebrate our fifth birthday than to ask you do the thing that started all this: Contact your state legislators, introduce yourself, and share with them your thoughts and feelings about the state budget. But don’t stop there—ask them about their thoughts, too. Find out why they hold that position, and even if you disagree, try to find common ground from which to work. Start building a relationship with them about this issue, and then keep it going throughout their term. That is how we fix this—by getting engaged and not giving up.
Besides, most of them—the good eggs, at least—care about this state just as much as you. But they need to hear from voices that aren’t inside the Capitol every day; they need to hear from the regular folks who live in their districts and are normally too busy or tired or jaded to take two minutes to send them an email or make a quick phone call. Doing that one little thing is something that tens of thousands of other people don’t do—and that means your voice is that much louder.
To make it super easy, head over to the Taxpayers for a Better Oklahoma website and they’ve got links to help you easily lookup and contact your state legislators (plus a ton more information about the current state of fiscal business for the state).
Thanks for reading to the end of this post and an even bigger THANK YOU for hanging with for our first five years of Let’s Fix This. I truly don’t have adequate words to express what this journey has been like and how much your support means to all of us.
We’re working on some stuff behind the scenes that I think you’re going to love; more details to come this summer. In the meantime: if you believe in building a better democracy, don’t mind hard work, and are looking for ways to dig in a little deeper in order to build long-term success, this is the place for you.
And, yes, your monetary donations are always appreciated. SO much.
Cheers,
Andy Moore
Executive Director
Two is Company; Three’s a Riot: Oklahoma Lawmakers Unleash a Barrage of Anti-Free Speech Bills in the 2021 Session
Note: The following post is a guest blog co-authored by Abby Henderson from the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable and Elly Page the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, published here in partnership with Freedom of Information Oklahoma. In addition, we interviewed Elly on this week's episode of Let's Pod This, which you can listen to below.
As the nation battles a raging pandemic, copes with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, faces down millions of lost jobs, and reels from a rocky transition to a new administration, state lawmakers have chosen to spend their time proposing ways to punish people who speak out. Across the country, lawmakers have filed a flurry of bills to target participation in protests. The trend is most pronounced in Oklahoma, where lawmakers have introduced ten separate bills that would grossly limit people’s First Amendment right to assemble and be heard.
Like their sister bills proposed in other states, the bills use a number of tactics to discourage Oklahomans from speaking out on issues they care about. Many of the bills create draconian penalties for conduct that is typical of peaceful protests and demonstrations. For instance, a bill proposed by Rep. Tom Gann, HB 1561, would make it a felony to protest in a public street--historically a central location for demonstrators to be noticed and heard. Had HB 156 been the law in 2018, the hundreds of teachers who marched from Tulsa to Oklahoma City for education funding could have been charged with felonies and handed two-year prison sentences. A separate Rep. Gann proposal, HB 1565, would require public employees found guilty of “unlawful assembly” to be immediately fired and barred from future government employment. Those same teachers could have lost their jobs, under HB 1565, if their marches and rallies were deemed to have “disturbed the public peace.”
The bills also create new criminal offenses that are so vague, they violate the most basic constitutional requirement to give notice of what is unlawful. Oklahomans are entitled to know the legal boundaries that apply when exercising their First Amendment rights. A bill proposed by Rep. Rick West, HB 1578, prohibits causing “annoyance” through “tumultuous” behavior at a public establishment during a “riot.” When does a noisy march become too “annoying” or “tumultuous”? Rep. West’s prohibition would seem broad enough to cover even a raucous tailgate party, potentially rendering the whole of Stillwater and Norman a “riot” every Saturday from August to January.
A bill proposed by Rep. Kevin McDugle, HB 2215, meanwhile, would make it a felony to in any way “urge” someone to block a road with the intent to aid a “riot.” Could a Facebook post that says “Let’s take our message to the streets!” make one liable for a felony? The wrong answer could mean a 10-year prison sentence under Rep. McDugle’s proposal.
Several of this session’s bills go still further, and create new legal protection for drivers who injure or kill protesters. HB 1561, HB 2215, and HB 1674, introduced by Rep. Kevin West, would shield drivers from criminal prosecution or civil penalties if they “unintentionally” injure or kill someone while “fleeing from a riot.” Last summer, as Americans nationwide took to the streets to speak out against racial injustice, over 100 demonstrators were hit and injured by cars. One such incident took place in Tulsa, when a pickup drove through a crowd of peaceful protesters, injuring several and resulting in one, a father of five, being paralyzed. Bills establishing legal immunity for such actions threaten to encourage more violence against Oklahomans who are peacefully seeking to have their voices heard.
Such sweeping, punitive bills are unnecessary and dangerous. Oklahoma currently has extensive laws on the books to address crimes like damaging property or injuring people, giving police and prosecutors plenty of tools to address instances of unlawful behavior. Enacting this kind of legislation will not make Oklahomans safer, but it will erode Oklahomans’ treasured First Amendment rights and further exacerbate the State’s growing incarceration crisis.
Protests are essential to our democracy and central to our history. They have spurred political and social progress, from enfranchising women and people of color to advancing labor rights and environmental standards--all by ensuring that different voices are heard. Rather than seeking to silence these voices, effective leaders listen and seek to address the people’s concerns in a meaningful way. In this moment, when so many are struggling, Oklahoma lawmakers should focus on improving people’s lives, rather than creating unnecessary, draconian new laws that undermine our constitutional values.
Abby Henderson is an Advocacy Counsel at the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) in Washington, DC. She is a proud native Sapulpan and graduate of the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Elly Page is a Senior Legal Advisor with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) in Washington, DC, and founder of ICNL’s US Protest Law Tracker.