Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
Protesters gather at the Wisconsin State Capitol, holding signs.

Trump's Water Policies Put America's Drinking Water at Risk

America at 250: A Country in Distress

America at 250: A Country in Distress

I Alone Can (Fix) Destroy It

I Alone Can (Fix) Destroy It

a house made of brown cardboard in a person's hands.

Homelessness Just Declined in the U.S.–Trump’s Plans Will Take Us Backwards.

Anti-gerrymandering campaign in Oklahoma hits new roadblocks

Oklahoma map
dk_photos/Getty Images
Geoff West
By Geoff WestMar 02, 2020
Geoff West

Geoff West is a staff writer at The Fulcrum, where he covers voting and voting rights, civic education, civil discourse and disinformation. Email:geoffwest@thefulcrum.us

See More Writings by author

A campaign to end partisan gerrymandering by the Republicans who run Oklahoma is facing more legal challenges in its efforts to bring nonpartisan mapmaking to the Sooner State.

In October, a coalition of redistricting reformers filed a petition with the secretary of state seeking permission to get signatures on petitions proposing a November ballot measure to create an independent commission that would undertake the next round of legislative and congressional redistricting after this year's census.

The application was quickly challenged in court by those seeking to keep the power in the hands of Oklahoma's entrenched, Republian-controlled Legislature.

They won a partial victory last month when the state Supreme Court ordered People Not Politicians, which is pushing for the commission, to rewrite its proposed language for the ballot summarizing the legalese of the referendum. The court ruled the wording lacked sufficient detail.

The justices, however, rejected more serious claims that opponents presented in the hopes of thwarting the petition, such as the claim that it amounted to a First Amendment violation.

People Not Politicians, which is headed by the League of Women Voters of Oklahoma and Let's Fix This, refiled revised language just days later.

On Friday, however, their opponents filed new legal challenges, again attacking the accuracy of the proposed language for the ballot as well as new claims about the constitutionality of the measure, such as barring people with political ties from the proposed commission.

Andy Moore, executive director of People Not Politicians, said he was "disappointed but not surprised" by the challenges brought by four plantiffs, who he said included a politician's wife, a lobbyist's daughter, a major GOP donor and a former head of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau. In other words, not your average citizens, but politically connected individuals with a stake in keeping certain politicians or political parties in control over mapmaking.

Moore said he is hoping the court moves quickly to allow the group time to begin collecting the 178,000 signatures needed to place the constitutional amendment on the ballot Nov. 3, in time for the potential commission to get to work on drawing the new lines to be used in 2022. The deadline for getting on the ballot is Aug. 19.


Latest news

Bruce Springsteen In Concert, facing his audience.
Pop Culture

Springsteen’s October D.C. Festival Pushes Music Into Democracy Fight

America at 250: The Next Expansion of the American Promise
Economy

America at 250: The Next Expansion of the American Promise

Read More

Texas Is Cross-Referencing Its List of Potential Noncitizen Voters With Driver’s License Records

Texas Department of Public Safety Region II Headquarters on Oct. 1, 2025 in Houston. The state is using DPS records to cross-check a list of registered voters it flagged as potential noncitizens using a federal database.

Antranik Tavitian for The Texas Tribune

Texas Is Cross-Referencing Its List of Potential Noncitizen Voters With Driver’s License Records

The Texas Secretary of State’s Office is now checking whether 2,724 registered voters it flagged as potential noncitizens may have already provided proof of citizenship to the Texas Department of Public Safety, elections division director Christina Adkins said during a meeting with county election administrators earlier this month. That check comes after county elections officials found the federal database used to generate the list flagged some voters who had already given citizenship documentation to DPS when they registered to vote.

Texas officials in October sent counties the list of potential noncitizens generated by checking the state’s voter roll of more than 18 million registered voters against a federal database used to verify citizenship. Soon after the state released the list, counties began to investigate the flagged registrants and mail notices asking them to provide documented proof of citizenship.

Keep ReadingShow less
The American Experiment at the Brink Due To Minority Rule

Can America overcome minority rule? Examining the Electoral College, NPVIC, campaign finance, and democratic reform in the 21st century.

adamkaz / Getty Images

The American Experiment at the Brink Due To Minority Rule

The challenge for continuing the American Experiment is recovering from the "Second Gilded Age" (1980s to the present). As of early 2026, the U.S. national debt is 122% to 125% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This situation has been exacerbated since 2000, when the U.S. national debt as a percentage of GDP was 33% to 35%. Americans can attribute this worsening situation to two non-popular vote presidents, Bush-43 and Trump-45. Directly, during their terms, and indirectly, with the aftermath of the 2008 Great recession and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1894, toward the end of the 19th century “Gilded Age," the U.S. national debt was approximately 7% of gross domestic product GDP.

Minority rule occurs when a numerical or ideological minority holds the power to consistently thwart the will of the majority or govern over them. It thrives through the coordinated reinforcement of specific electoral, institutional, and legal mechanisms.

Keep ReadingShow less
Full frame shot of pins that say “vote” with red, white, and blue American flag theme.

An analysis of Project 2025, the Electoral College, and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, examining democracy, representation, and presidential elections.

Adrienne Bresnahan / Getty Images

Spirit of 1776 – Rejected by Project 2025, Embraced by NPVIC

Project 2025 is a structural undoing of the "Spirit of 1776." It fundamentally undermines the foundational principles of the Declaration of Independence in the following areas: democratic representation, equality, liberty, and checks/balances. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) restores the founding ideals of civic equality.

Spirit of 1776 – Rejected by Project 2025, Embraced by NPVIC

Keep ReadingShow less
California Voters Don’t Like Either Party. Good Thing the Primary Doesn’t Belong to The Parties.

California voters increasingly distrust both major parties. Here's why the state's Top Two primary gives independent voters more power to shape elections.

Image: Duncan Shelby on Alamy.

California Voters Don’t Like Either Party. Good Thing the Primary Doesn’t Belong to The Parties.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - California voters have already received ballots for the June 2 primary, and the message they have going into these elections may not be what the political class wants to hear: They are not thrilled with either major party.

A recent analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that majorities of likely voters have unfavorable views of both parties—61% unfavorable toward the Democratic Party and 70% unfavorable toward the Republican Party.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026