OKLAHOMA CITY – On Tuesday, Rep. Chris Banning, R-Bixby, held an interim study to examine aligning school board elections with on-cycle elections.
IS24-018 was held before the Elections and Ethics House Committee.
Currently, Oklahoma statute mandates school board elections be held on off-cycle rotations and not in November. Banning said Oklahoma is one of only 12 states with such a mandate.
Dr. Bradley Ward, Oklahoma deputy director for Americans for Prosperity, discussed the potential benefits of aligning school board elections with on-cycle elections.
Ward’s analysis, based on data from the Oklahoma State Election Board, shows that an average of 6% of registered voters participated in Oklahoma’s local school board elections in April 2024.
Using data from the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System, Ward’s calculations indicate that Oklahoma school districts spent about $16.8 million on election services in 2023. Ward projected that shifting elections to on-cycle elections could save and repurpose about $17 million for school needs.
During his presentation, Ward shared case studies from Texas and Michigan, highlighting how these states increased voter turnout.
In 2006, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1, shifting 174 school districts to on-cycle elections. Ward said that, as a result, voter turnout increased significantly.
“After the Michigan Legislature passed House Bill 4005 in 2011, the following year saw a remarkable surge in voter turnout in their 2012 school board elections,” Ward said. “With some districts experiencing a voter increase of over 1600%.”
During the study, Ward said that based on the case studies from red states such as Texas and historically blue states such as Michigan, this policy is a bipartisan way to effectively save school districts money, align elections, and increase voter turnout and accountability.
“Again, this legislation is simple,” Banning said. “It increases voter turnout, which leads to accurate community representation in our education system while saving tens of millions for our amazing educators.”