Board decides in favor of Rogers, Blevins

The Oklahoma State Election Board on April 18 voted to retain on the ballot two candidates who had been challenged. The board decided in favor of the validity of the candidacies of Carter Rogers, of Fairfax, and Kenneth Blevins, of Sand Springs.

Rogers, 22, is running against incumbent legislator Ken Luttrell, 70, of Ponca City, in Oklahoma House of Representatives District 37. Rogers is an Independent candidate, while Luttrell is a Republican. Luttrell will not have an opponent in the June 18 Republican Party primary. He and Rogers will have until Nov. 5 to try to persuade voters to support them.

Blevins, 39, of Sand Springs, is running against incumbent Republican legislator Clay Staires, 59, of Skiatook. Blevins is a Libertarian Party candidate, and he explained that his party choice was based on principle. He said that he just can’t be either a Republican or a Democrat.

Luttrell’s challenge to Rogers was based on a claim that Rogers needed to be properly registered to vote in Oklahoma for a minimum of six months before filing to be a candidate, but was not.

Rogers explained that he was a registered Oklahoma voter when he moved to Colorado for college. While in Colorado, he registered to vote there. Rogers took the position that it was legally up to Oklahoma to purge his name from its voter rolls upon learning that he had registered in Colorado. Rogers also took the position that Oklahoma’s failure to purge his name likely reflected a lack of communication brought on by the state’s decision not to participate in a multistate cooperative in which states share information for purposes of keeping their voter rolls updated. Colorado is a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Oklahoma is not a member.

When Rogers came home from college, he was still a registered Oklahoma voter, he said.

Staires’s challenge to Blevins was based on whether Blevins collected a sufficient number of signatures of District 66 registered voters to get on the ballot. Blevins deliberately chose to collect petition signatures rather than paying to get on the ballot. He told the Oklahoma State Election Board that he did so to communicate to people that you don’t need a lot of money to be active in local politics.

Blevins needed at least 483 valid signatures. He submitted 528 signatures.

Anthony J. Ferate, an Oklahoma City lawyer and past chairman of the state Republican Party, represented Luttrell and Staires in the candidacy contest hearings, held in Oklahoma City. In remarks during the hearing on Staires’s challenge to Blevins, Ferate said that research indicated 81 of Blevins’s signatures should not count.

Blevins countered that 47 of the 81 disputed signers had been located through a check of the voter portal, giving him more than the needed number of valid signatures.

Both Blevins and Rogers were pleased with the outcome of their April 18 hearings.

“There will be elections in both HD 37 and HD 66!” Blevins said in a text. He added in a later phone call that it had been a good day for democracy.

Rogers said he had been receiving calls from family members, friends and supporters. He also credited Luttrell with greeting him in a friendly manner following the board's decision regarding District 37.

Luttrell indicated in a text message that he was looking ahead.

“Although the Election Board didn’t interpret the law the way we did, it’s their job to insure that qualified electors are on the ballot,” Luttrell said. “I look forward to candidate debates and continuing to serve as the common sense representative for the district.”