The Oklahoma Kid Governor® Program is a specific curriculum for Oklahoma fifth graders, designed to teach students the importance of civic involvement and voting in a manner that is based on Oklahoma’s system of government, and which is completely nonpartisan and free of indoctrination. Each year, one Oklahoma fifth-grade student is elected to serve as Oklahoma’s Kid Governor®. The program is provided free-of-charge to participating schools by the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. (Courtesy Image)
FOR THE CHILDREN by Joe Dorman, OICA CEO
OKLAHOMA CITY – I am a numbers guy, so I enjoy analyzing elections. Oklahoma’s Primary Elections were held on June 15 to select party nominees for the General Election, to be held November 2. Runoffs races for candidates not receiving a majority in the Primary were held on August 24 between the top two vote-getters. The ballot also included two state constitutional amendments.
Overall Primary Runoff turnout was 22% of registered Oklahoma voters, which includes the three parties (Democrat, Libertarian and Republican) and independents. Independents and Libertarians could vote only on the two state questions, with the two major parties having more to decide.
Democrats had a 21% turnout for one statewide primary, a U.S. Senate race between the eventual winner N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas and Jim Priest. About 616,000 Oklahomans are registered Democrats, according to the state Election Board, and 129,439 Dems voted in the runoff. Thomas faces Republican Kevin Hern, Libertarian Sevier White, and independents Ron Meinhardt and Curtis Stinnett in November.
More than 371,000 Republicans voted, or 28.7% of registered party members. Mike Mazzei narrowly edged out Gentner Drummond in the gubernatorial runoff, winning by a total of just over one vote per our state’s 1,984 precincts. Three other statewide Republican Runoffs were also held for offices.
For the governor General Election, it will be Mazzei, Democratic nominee Cyndi Munson, and three independents – Robert Brooks, Orlando Lynn Bush, and Jerry Griffin – on the ballot.
So, what explains the turnout this year? In all four of their races, the Republicans ran significant ad time on television and online. Democrats did not utilize these traditional methods, so this likely led to their lower percentage.
In the Primary Election held earlier this year, 26% of registered Oklahoma voters went to the polls, so, there was just a 4% dropoff. When you look at previous years, exempting out the 2018 vote which included the medical marijuana referendum, most other years had significant dropoffs from Primary to Runoff, like what our neighbors in Texas had earlier this year.
Comparing Oklahoma and Texas, in the TX Primary, 24% showed up in their Primary and then 9% in the run-off. Their ballot decided the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate race between two heavily funded, well-advertised candidates. Oklahoma certainly won that turnout competition.
While I am not thrilled with the low voter percentage, I am thankful for those who did take the time to vote. This matters greatly for the decision of who will represent us in elective offices.
How do we fix this? The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) is doing our part to encourage young Oklahomans to understand the importance of voting. Through our Oklahoma Kid Governor® program, fifth-grade classes in public, private, and charter schools can receive free lesson plans for teachers to help lead instruction on the role of officials and why each of us has a civic responsibility to vote when we turn 18 years old.
Teachers can also do an optional addition where students in the classroom can run for Kid Governor® on a platform of their choosing. The class votes and the winner then submits a video to our office explaining why their issue is important. We narrow down the field to seven candidates, then ballots and candidate videos are sent to each participating classroom for the students to watch and vote for their favorite.
We have not held this program long enough to assess if voter registration and turnout will increase in each of those communities, but in watching the excitement these children have to be able to do something as important as voting, we at OICA expect it will boost turnout, long term.
We have a few weeks left for 5th grade classrooms to sign up. Please share with those teachers in your community so we can begin the process of preparing these young people for one of our most important civic obligations. Email OICA Program Director Licia Walters-Davis at lwalters@oica.org to learn more about how your local classroom can participate.
About OICA: The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy was established in 1983 by a group of citizens seeking to create a strong advocacy network that would provide a voice for the needs of children and youth in Oklahoma, particularly those in the state’s care and those growing up amid poverty, violence, abuse and neglect, disparities, or other situations that put their lives and future at risk. Our mission statement: “Creating awareness, taking action and supporting policy to improve the health, safety, and well-being of Oklahoma’s children.”
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