By Kirk McCracken
Voters wanting a third political party in the state of Oklahoma will have to wait another year after the “Sooner State Party” came up short in becoming an official political party.
The Sooner State Party needed 35,000 signatures to achieve official party status, but failed by 400 signatures. Friday, Feb. 27 was the deadline for the signatures, and party co-founder C.J. Webber-Neal tells KRMG he was disappointed with the final count. Now, the organization has to start over again, but he feels confident.
“We’re very positive,” he said. “It is disappointing in the fact that we really wanted to get on the ballot this year so that independents would be able to vote in the primaries and runoffs,” Webber-Neal said.
The Sooner State party is made up of people from across the political spectrum.
“We are a unique party in that we have democrats, republicans, and independents that came together to form this because they were tired of the way things were going here in the state of Oklahoma,” he said.
The Sooner State Party will try again in November, and they have a full 12 months to garner the 35,000 signatures needed to make their party an official third party in Oklahoma.
