Oklahoma Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Allow Voters To Vote Out Unopposed Incumbents

An Oklahoma lawmaker has filed a bill that would give people a chance to vote unopposed incumbents out when picking their representatives. Oklahoma City Representative Andy Fugate said he introduced the legislation because he wants to give Oklahomans a voice, even if the person on the ballot is running unopposed.

If passed, House Bill 3059 would let voters choose whether they wanted to keep an incumbent in office, if that person is not facing a challenger. Right now, whoever runs unopposed automatically wins reelection. If voters wanted to vote an unopposed incumbent out, a special election would be called after people had time to decide who they would want to vote in instead.

“If you take a look at the last election in 2020, 46 members out of 126 open seats ran unopposed,” Fugate said. “That is 40% of legislators winning their election without anybody ever casting a vote for them. When I took a look at that I thought that’s a problem and something we ought to fix.”

If nobody else is chosen to run during that time, that person will automatically continue to hold that seat. He said he used judicial retention practices to come up with this legislation which is similar to what is done for judges.

“I think it’s unamerican for them to not have that opportunity to participate to decide who is going to represent them,” Fugate said.

Fugate said he is hoping for bipartisan support for the bill as it heads to committee.