Four days of early voting in Tulsa County shattered a record with 26,211 voters, edging ahead of the previous high set ahead of the 2024 presidential election (25,954 ballots cast). It also toppled the midterm election record of 16,302 ballots set in 2022.
That’s just the preview for Tuesday’s main event.
Polls will be open for the midterm election from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 3. Voters can get a sample ballot and verify their polling place at the Oklahoma Voter Portal. For information on local candidates, go to the Flyer’s voter guide.
What to bring
Voters must bring identification to cast a ballot. That can be any ID issued by the U.S. government, State of Oklahoma or a federally recognized tribe. It must include a person’s name, photograph and an expiration date that hits after the election (unless the ID is valid indefinitely). A driver’s license does not have to be a Real ID.
Also, the voter card issued when registering to vote is accepted even though it doesn’t have a photo. A medical marijuana card is accepted.
Voters can bring in a marked sample ballot or personal notes, but those are to be kept out of public view while waiting and not to be distributed.
Children can be with their parents in the voting enclosure. If there is a line, anyone waiting when polls close at 7 p.m. will be able to vote.
What’s on the ballot
All Oklahoma voters will choose congressional representatives, state officers, two state questions and appellate judges. Tulsa-area voters will have a couple federal races on their ballots, including picking new faces for the U.S. Senate and House.
Federal races:
- U.S. Senate: Republican Kevin Hern, Democrat N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas, Libertarian Sevier White and independents Curtis Stinnett and Ron Meinhardt
- 1st U.S. Congressional District: Democrat John Croisant and Republican Mark Tedford
Statewide races:
- Governor: Democrat Cyndi Munson, Republican Mike Mazzei and independents Robert Brooks, Orlando Lynn Bush and Jerry Griffin
- Lieutenant Governor: Republican T.W. Shannon and Democrat Kelly Forbes
- Attorney General: Democrat Nick Coffey and Republican Jon Echols
- State Superintendent: Republican Robert Franklin and Democrat Jennettie Marshall
- State Treasurer: Republican Cindy Byrd and Libertarian Kiefer Perry
- Labor Commissioner: Democrat Kevin Dawson, Republican Kevin West and Libertarian Mike Hall
- Insurance Commissioner: Republican Bob Sullivan and Democrat Craig MacIntyre
- Corporation Commissioner: Democrat Rhonda Eastman and Republican Brad Boles
- Judicial retention: Voters will select “yes” to retain appellate judges or “no,” which would trigger the replacement process that begins with the Judicial Nominating Commission. The commission provides the governor a list of possible replacements for appointment. On the retention ballot are four state Supreme Court judges, four Court of Civil Appeals judges and one Court of Criminal Appeals judge.
State Questions:
- State Question 845: This measure would make several changes to the Judicial Nominating Commission, which is a 15-member bipartisan group that makes recommendations to fill seats on the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals and Court of Civil Appeals.
- State Question 847: This measure would change the calculation on assessed properties to slow down value increases.
State House and Senate races:
Of the 125 legislative races up for election, 79 are contested on Tuesday’s ballot. The other races either drew a single candidate or were decided in the August party primary election.
Tulsa-area voters will make decisions in Senate Districts 34 and 36 and House Districts 68, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80 and 98.
Local races:
- Tulsa city residents will decide on a resolution to raise the hotel/motel tax from 5% to 9.9%.
- Tulsa City Council District 1 voters will decide the runoff between incumbent Vanessa Hall-Harper and Corinice Wilson. Read or watch The Oklahoma Eagle’s interviews with Wilson and Hall-Harper.
- Tulsa County voters will choose district judges in Office 1 (incumbent Caroline Wall and Tom Sawyer), Office 4 (Dustin Allen and Loretta Radford) and Office 12 (incumbent Kevin Gray and Christopher Camp).
Casting a provisional ballot
If forgetting an ID, don’t leave the polling place or skip voting. Ask the poll worker for a provisional ballot.
A provisional ballot is used when a person doesn’t have an ID, their name doesn’t appear in the precinct registry or other questions arise about the voter’s registration.
Poll workers will record the voter’s name, address, date of birth and — if available — Social Security number and driver’s license number. The voter will sign an affidavit with that information.
The provisional ballot will be sealed in a special envelope, kept separate from other ballots and sent to the county election board to be counted after Election Day. To be counted, election workers will verify the information provided by the voter when filling out the provisional ballot.
Voters can check if their ballot was counted by going to the Oklahoma Voter Portal.
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