Let's Pod This

Uh...can we vent for just a sec? This week has been *a lot* and we all need to let it out a little bit, because next week is the Governor's State of the State address and the start of the legislative session. Deep breaths, friends.

• OCC investigation into Todd Hiett ends, says behavior was isolated. Ethics Commission investigation about conflict of interest is ongoing. 
• SCOTUS taking up St. Isidore Oklahoma Catholic Virtual Charter School case
• Teacher shortage continues, with more than 5,000 emergency certified teachers statewide
• Oklahoma student achieve still very low, but Walters wants to focus on other things
• Governor Stitt wants a tax cut
• Legislative leaders sound supportive, but it’s still early
• And he wants to send incarcerated undocumented out of OK, but there’s a catch…

We discuss the three ethics investigations being made into two statewide elected officials, and then Minority Leader Julia Kirt joins us to give a preview of her priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

With more than 3,200 bills filed this year, the hard work begins: sorting out the good, bad, and the ugly. Oh, and all of that while the Governor wants his own little military and Ryan Walters is...doing typical Ryan Walters stuff.

Articles discussed:

• Oklahoma House Speaker outlines his goals for legislative session
• Oklahoma Senate Democrats to focus on wages, schools, basic needs in 2025
• Oklahoma lawmakers file wide-ranging bills
• Efforts to raise the age of consent in Oklahoma return to Legislature
• Oklahoma schools chief sues federal government over immigration policies
• Ethics Commission to subpoena Ryan Walters for campaign records
• Oklahoma State Guard Plan Unveiled
• Agency asks for funds for an Oklahoma militia
• ‘Champion of the ratepayer’: Bob Anthony reformed OCC, worked undercover for FBI
• Ahead of special board meeting, OSBI director Aungela Spurlock resigning

The 60th Oklahoma Legislature has officially convened, bill writing is underway, and session will be starting in just a few weeks. Let's get caught up on where things stand as we enter the next few months.

Transcript:

• Hello and welcome to Let’s Pod This, my name is Andy Moore and we have a jam-packed episode for you today. At the end I will highlight some important upcoming events, so while you’re listening, be sure to grab a pen and paper to write those down.
• But first, let’s begin with our legislative update: 
• Tuesday was Organizational Day for the Oklahoma legislature, which is the day when the members come together to formally elect the leaders of each caucus and each chamber, vote on the rules the bodies will use to operate for the next year, and, I think, to take new headshots. I’ve seen a lot of folks post them online, at least.  More on this later.
• 
  
• I’m honestly not clear on when the Legislative session *officially* begins. Organizational Day seems like the official start, but some people say that the legislature isn’t REALLY in session until the first Monday in February; this year that falls on February 3rd. That’s the day the Governor gives his State of the State address and when the Legislature formally gavels into session. Ah, wait…I think that’s it - I think Organizational Day is the first day of the Legislature - this year begins the 60th Oklahoma Legislature, and remember that each Legislature is a two-year cohort or lineup - and each Legislature will have multiple sessions. There are at least two “regular” sessions, one each year, and the first regular session of the 60th legislature begins on February 3rd. And then there maybe some “extraordinary” or special sessions sprinkled in along the way.
• 
  
• Anyway, on Organizational Day, The Senate published its schedule for chamber deadlines, and it is unusually detailed, particularly when it comes to bill filing. There are seven deadline dates in January, one for Organizational Day and the other six relate to bill filing and stipulate things as specific as “Final draft revisions due to drafters by Senators” by 4pm on January 15th. And then the schedule only lists six more deadlines for the entire duration of session, February to May. 
• As of today, the House has not published their entire deadline schedule but they have published their Committee Schedule. At first I was surprised to see that the Appropriations & Budget Committee is scheduled to meet every day - the schedule has them listed on Monday mornings at 9am AND 10:30am, as well as Monday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, AND Wednesday afternoon, all at 4:30pm, and then one more time on Thursdays at 1:30pm. BUT then I saw a footnote that says “The A&B Committee develops its own meeting schedule and that of the Subcommittees,” so we’ll just wait and see what they do. It would be unusual for the A&B committee to meet so early on a Monday morning, as many rural legislators go home to their districts on the weekends and don’t drive into the city until Monday. I’m not opposed to Monday morning meetings, though - I love to see legislators at the Capitol working on things. Plus, more meetings means, at least in theory, that there will be more time for thoughtful discussion about important issues…or it could just mean more time for inane shenanigans that distract the legislature (and the public!) away from important issues. 
• Speaking of distraction, the Bill filing deadline is next Thursday, January 16th, and that means that over the next few weeks you will hear about many, many bad and ridiculous bills. And a few good ones, too, God willing, but, undoubtedly,  the small cabal of legislators who like to govern by press release will find themselves in the limelight for a few brief moments. I signed up to receive all the press releases from the legislature a few years ago and overall it’s been a helpful way to stay informed about what’s happening at the Capitol during session, but there are 3 or 4 guys who send out a disproportionate number of press releases about absolutely wacky policy stuff such that the volume of wacky to worthwhile in my inbox gets tipped so far that I often consider unsubscribing from the whole list. But I persist, because it’s important and so that you don’t have to hit Groan-Alt-Delete and sort through all that mess. 
• We’ve got a new feature for you today, friends and I have mixed feelings about it so I wanted to tell you up front. If you’ve listened to our podcast for awhile, you’ve probably figured out that I am not just a political nerd but also a regular nerd-nerd, as in, I like math and science and computers and Star Trek and bicycles and stuff. Anyway, AI is all the rage and I’m always poking around with new AI tools to see what they can do. And, while I’ve found some use cases that were interesting - I really like Antrhopic’s AI tool, Claude - but overall I have struggled to find ways to use AI that is actually beneficial to me. Until now, that is. Google has released a tool called NotebookLM that is supposedly to help students with studying (and it definitely could!), but the feature I am most interested in is that it can take source text, like books or news articles, and from those sources, create an audio conversation between two people - two AI voices - discussing the content of the text. Basically, it makes a podcast conversation about something that was written.
• Since we at Let’s Pod This like to do a news round-up in each episode of our show, I thought this might be a useful tool to still keep you in the loop about what’s happening but not force you to listen to my voice for a full hour every week. And I can hear some of you rolling your eyes already, but I’m serious when I say, this NotebookLM thing blew me away. 
• So, what you’re going to hear next are our new Capitol Correspondents, Adam and Izzy. (AI, get it?) They’re going to give us a news roundup from the past few weeks, and then you are going to let me know if you like it or not, by sending me an email to [email protected] and just say pump or dump the AI correspondents. And don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, and we still plan to bring many excellent guests on the show. And hey, this is episode 280, which means we’ll likely hit episode 300 before the end of session! Wild.
• Okay, without further ado, let’s go to Adam and Izzy for the news.
• 
  
• Thanks, Adam and Izzy! (See, that was kinda cool, right?) Some mispronunciations (like “Jit-ner rather than Gentner Drummond) and clearly doesn’t know how to read abbreviations (like shortening Sergeant to Sgt.). There were a couple of blips where it sounded like Adam & Izzy were mumbling, but I suppose we do those in person, too. And there was a point where my phone rang and the sound came through, but again, that happens with humans, too. Ha!  Anyway, it’s easy to focus on small blips but overall, it was pretty interesting and surprisingly conversational nature of it. 
• Okay, I want to end with a personal note of mourning following the deaths of three tremendous Americans, former President Jimmy Carter, Oklahoma philanthropist Gene Rainbolt, and Oklahoma community organizer and my friend, Roxanne Logan. 
• I didn’t know Jimmy Carter, and while history may not look back on his presidency particularly favorably, I am confident we will look back on the man with very high esteem. The man might not have been an economist, but he was a saint.
• I met Gene Rainbolt on two occasions. Once, when asking him for funding for our campaign against gerrymandering, which I knew was one of his top policy issues. (He said no, or at least “not yet.”) The second time was just two months ago, when he reached out to me, because he wanted to again discuss how we could end gerrymandering and open primary elections to all voters. He was an energetic, intelligent, and gracious man. He asked where I got my MBA, and I smiled while I replied “well the OU Gene Rainbolt Graduate School of Business, of course.” He blushed and said he didn’t need his name on the building, he just wanted Oklahomans to get a solid education in business. 
• I worked with Roxanne Logan on a number of projects through her inovlvement with Together Oklahoma, the LWV Oklahoma, and many of our other allies and civic groups. She was amazing. I will miss her sense of humor and her sense of purpose in this work. OK Policy has a great post about her, which I’m going to read to you now…
• At the beginning of this episode I mentioned that there are some important dates & events coming up this month, and I told you to grab a pen and paper. They are three candidate forums, one for Norman Mayor, one for OK County Commissioner, and one for OKC City Council for Ward 7. Here the details:
• Norman will be electing a new Mayor next month, and the LWV Norman & Pioneer Library System are co-hosting a candidate forum on Monday, Jan. 13 at 6 pm. It will be held in the Norman City Council Chambers (201 W. Gray St. Norman OK). It will also be streamed on Facebook.
• Oklahoma County will be electing a new county commissioner for District 1, which was previously held by Carrie Blumert before she resigned to be CEO of the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma. There will be a candidate forum on Thursday January 16th at 7pm at We The People Consulting (228 SW 25th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73109). We are a partner in this forum.
• We are also a partner for a candidate forum for OKC City Council Ward 7 two weeks later, on Thurday January 30th, at 7pm, at NE OKC Renaissance (1740 NE 23rd St). 
• Both of those OKC events are hosted by a team of organizations: Homebase, Foundation for Liberating Minds, Matriarch, Dream Action Oklahoma, Liver Free OKC, NEOKC Neighborhood Coalition, Inc., Progress OKC, NEOKCR, Julius Jones Institue, Let's Fix This, the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, and Vote for Change.
• We’ll also sound out details on those events via an email newsletter today. If you haven’t yet subscribed, you should. It’s the best way to stay in the loop on what we and our partners are doing. Head over to letsfixthis.org and you’ll get a pop-up box prompting you to sign up. 
• Okay, that brings us to the end of the episode. Thank you for being here, thank you for being engaged on the issues that matter most in our state, thank you for caring about democracy and for all of the ways you, as a citizen of this great nation, put in the work to make democracy more fair, more representative, and more equitable for all Americans. Remember, decisions are made by those who show up!

This year has been a lot. Too much, actually. So let's go ahead and start looking toward 2025, the 60th Oklahoma Legislature, and the future we want to create for our state.

Andy discusses results from the November 2024 election and what comes next...but mostly how he's feeling right now.

A few reminders about elections, outcomes, and self-care before the election. Oh, and here's this in case you need it:

Election Protection Hotline: 1-866-687-8683 or 866OurVote.org

Scott's back, and so is Dr. Keith Gaddie, and together we discuss the presidential race, democracy, and everything in between.

With 3 weeks until election day, the team discusses the state of the presidential race, the role of prediction markets, and what Oklahomans will find on their ballots this year.

• League of Women Voters' 2024 Voter Guide
• Let's Fix This' Voter Hub
• FiveThirtyEight's election dashboard
• Nate Silver's substack, Silver Bulletin, and podcast, Risky Business
• Freakonomics Radio episode "How to Predict the Presidency"

Yesterday, Governor Stitt and state election officials released a statement about election security and the state's efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls. While accurate, the way the Governor presented the data has caused concern, so we want to clear up a few things.

Oklahoma did not purge 453K voters this week. 

The way this has been presented made some people believe this was a recent purge, however, the truth is that 453K is the total number of voters who were removed from 2021 to present. Voter list maintenance is done monthly, and voters may be removed from voter rolls for many reasons - often because they've moved out of state, died, or became ineligible for some reason. Some voters are removed because they have not voted in many years (more on that below). 

Voter list maintenance is good and normal. 

Every state is required to maintain a clean & accurate voter list, and it's an enormous task. Oklahoma currently has nearly 2.4 million registered voters, but that number changes every single day. Voters are constantly moving within the state and between states, voters die, change their name, and change their party affiliation. Some voters become ineligble due to felony convictions and others regain their eligibility once they complete their sentences. And some voters become inactive because they do not participate for a long period of time. It's a constantly changing list, and keeping it as current as possible is good for everyone.

When does list maintenance occur?

The Oklahoma State Election Board does list maintenance on an ongoing basis and publishes monthly reports with details about how many voters were added, removed, and updated. You can view the August report here. 

What about "inactive" voters?

State and federal laws require the State Election Board to contact voters who have not voted in a while. In Oklahoma, a voter is considered "inactive" if they have not voted in four general election cycles - in other words, if they have not voted in any election for 8 consecutive years. Here's how it works:

1. In the year after a general election, the state will send the address confirmation to voters who haven’t cast a ballot in either of the last two general elections or any state or local elections in that 4-year time period.
2. If the voter doesn’t respond within 60 days of receiving the letter, they are put on “inactive status” but are still registered and are still able to vote. The voter can regain their active status at any time by voting in any election or updating their voter registration information.
3. If the voter, while on inactive status, doesn’t participate in an election for two more general election cycles (4 additional years), their voter registration will then be removed and they will need to re-register if they want to vote again.

This means that any inactive voter who is being purged this year hasn't voted in any election since 2018 and didn't respond to the notification mailer from the State Election Board.

Do other states also remove voters in a similar manner? 

Yes, although the process varies from state to state. All states strive to maintain accurate voter lists. 

Do we need to remove inactive voters?

Some argue that no voter should ever be removed, even if they're inactive, because it's an infringement on voting rights. Others argue that we should purge voters even more quickly than we do already. Our position is that list maintenance is important provided that the state makes attempts to engage with inactive voters. Oklahoma's current system meets these requirements.

We also believe that if the state is going to take action to remove voters then it should take greater action to register new ones, such as by enacting automatic voter registration when someone turns 18, becomes a US citizen, and anytime a eligible person interacts with any state agency.

Why isn't there a nationwide voter database?

There is...kind of. In 2012, a bipartisan, nonprofit organization called the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, was created to be a clearinghouse for voter data between states. Unfortunately, due to rumors and conspiracy theories, a number of states have pulled out of ERIC and did so without a good alternative. This NPR article from October 2023 provides a great overview. 

How do I know if I'm still registered? 

You can easily check your voter registration status by using the Oklahoma Voter Portal or the Let's Fix This Voter Hub. 

Anything else I should know? 

We encourage everyone to read the Governor's full statement, as it really does highlight the sound management of Oklahoma's election system from beginning to end, including the security of our voting machines, paper ballots, and election audit process. There is a lot of misinformation about elections floating around this year - you can play a role in correcting the misinformation and being a resource for your friends and family. 

Do I wish the Governor had phrased things differently? Yes, of course. But perhaps there is a silver lining - if people think they're being purged, maybe it will prompt them to update their voter registration and to vote!