Oklahoma's medical marijuana petition bringing in new voters

Medical marijuana may be the state’s newest gateway drug — to voting.

Oklahomans for Health is spearheading a ballot drive to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The group has collected about 100,000 of the 156,000 signatures of registered voters it needs to get the issue on the ballot, according to its chairman, Chip Paul.

In the process, Paul said, the group has registered 24,000 new voters.

“It’s kind of been an ancillary effect of doing this,” he said. “It’s interesting. There’s people who have never voted before.”

About two dozen of those new voters signed up on a recent afternoon outside the Belle Isle Library in Oklahoma City. Volunteer Bonnie Gleason, 64, who was collecting signatures for the petition, watched as the new voters, many between ages 18 and 29, painstakingly filled out registration forms.

Gleason had just given the Oklahomans a civics lesson: They must be registered to vote to participate in the process and sign the petition. Most of those who registered, then signed, pledged to show up at the polls to vote — come Nov. 4, if the initiative makes it to the ballot.

The group has just under three weeks left to gather signatures.

While the petition's outcome remains to be seen, it may be having a measurable effect on the state's voter rolls.

More than 19,000 people have registered to vote from June 1 through July 25, said State Election Board spokesman Bryan Dean. That’s up nearly 7,000 from the same period four years ago.

The motive behind the bump is unknown. Dean could not say how many of the new registrations were for young voters, which might be one indication of the petition's impact.

Younger voters tend to be less socially conservative than older voters, said David Glover, who runs badvoter.org, a non-partisan website that tracks Oklahomans' voting habits to encourage more people to go to the polls. They're more likely to register as independents or Democrats, he said.

And, he noted, Oklahoma is fourth-worst in the nation for youth voting.

Glover said a citizen-led petition's chance of collecting enough signatures to make the ballot is low. The new voter registrations, he added, may be the "best thing that comes out of the petition.”

Brandon Lenoir, professor of political science at Oklahoma State University, said voters 18 to 25 traditionally are the least likely to go to the polls because they don't believe they have a stake.

“They feel removed from the political process because most of the issues that they find interesting aren’t even addressed," said Lenoir, who specializes in voter behavior.

The best indicator of whether someone will vote, he said, is whether they voted in the previous election, though ballot initiatives that address topics of youth interest could motivate them to the polls.

He said it's also hard to assess how thousands of citizens newly signed up to vote might affect other races. “New voter registration does not usually decide the outcome of an election," he said.

Paul said his group is campaigning “completely on a shoestring,” and has spent less than $55,000. It relies on volunteers like Sarah Tillman, 22, of Midwest City.

Tillman was diagnosed with leukemia at age 19. After losing nearly 40 pounds during treatment, she used marijuana before meals to increase her appetite. She said it was "the thing besides chemo that kept me alive."

Tillman, who is in remission and studying to be nurse, spends her spare time volunteering with the initiative. She often stands on the corner near Belle Isle Library, holding a sign that encourages people to stop and sign the petition.

There are a lot of honks and supportive gestures, she said, but also negative head-shakes, thumbs down and middle fingers. She hopes the number of supporters outweighs the naysayers and that she'll have a chance to vote on legalization in November, she said.

Lenoir cautioned that interest groups tend to inflate their numbers and said a different issue may be drawing most of the new voters.

The more likely factor, he said, is a “wide-open race” for state school superintendent after incumbent Janet Barresi was unseated in the primary. Republicans and Democrats are working hard to get people to the polls in that race.

The governor’s race is also drawing attention, he said, in addition to other ballot initiatives including legalizing all marijuana usage and adding storm shelters in schools.

“At least it’s an interesting election cycle,” he said.

by Janelle Stecklein,  CNHI News Service

Copyright 2014, Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., provided through The Associated Press.

The Gayly – August 11, 2014 @ 11:45am