As a thunderstorm rolls in, people stand in line outside the Mitch Park YMCA, which was next to the Oklahoma County early voting location in Edmond on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY – Lawmakers are studying ways to reduce the long waits early voters experienced during the last presidential election.
At least three county election boards – Oklahoma, Tulsa and Cleveland – plan to open additional locations, a legislative panel was told Tuesday.
Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, oversaw a Tuesday interim study on the issue. Interim studies often help lawmakers craft legislation for the upcoming session.
Boren said knew of two instances during the 2024 presidential election in which some Cleveland County voters were told early voting had closed when time still remained to cast ballots.
She blamed the issue on inadequate training.
Each county is required to have one early voting site, said State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax.
Counties with 25,000 or more voters or that have an area of 1,500 square miles or more can have more than one site, he said.
During the last general election, about 15 counties had more than one early voting site, he said.
A record 293,206 voters voted early during the 2024 general election, an increase from 167,185 four years earlier, he said.
In Tulsa County, 10% of registered voters cast ballots early, double the percentage in 2020, said Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman.
The average wait time to vote early in Tulsa County during the last presidential election was an hour and a half, but some waited two hours, she said.
In Oklahoma City, the longest early voting wait was two to three hours, but at the Edmond location, voters waited as long as six hours, said Oklahoma County Assistant Election Board Secretary Tuesday Sanders.
“It didn’t start off that way, but people kept coming and coming,” she said.
She said a third location will take the pressure off the other two early voting locations.
“You really had county election boards across the state dealing with unprecedented levels of early voting turnout, and I think that drove some of the lines that you were hearing about, because there was no way to anticipate that there was going to be that kind of shift,” Ziriax said.
County election officials did the best with the hand they were dealt, he said. Ziriax said he doesn’t want people to wait in long lines, but it comes down to resources, time, money, people and locations.
While some of the resources can come from the Legislature, a lot has to come from the county government, he said.
Cleveland County is adding additional sites to bring the total to six from four since the last general election, said Cleveland County Election Board Secretary Bryant Rains.
The initial cost for Cleveland County to add an additional early voting site is about $15,000, he said.
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