A clear attempt to muddy the waters regarding voter identification at Oklahoma polls.

Jul 21, 2026

by Wendi Dial, State Director, Restore Liberty Oklahoma

This spring, the Oklahoma State Legislature quietly passed SJR 47 without fanfare and with the support of the Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary, who helped author the bill. The bill was authored by the President Pro Tempre of the Senate, Senator Paxton and the Speaker of the House, Rep Hilbert. This sends a constitutional amendment to the people of Oklahoma to reject or approve, in a historically very low voter turnout runoff election, the codification of a requirement for a form of ID at Oklahoma polls when voting.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

In the world where the President and election integrity advocates and experts around the country are pressuring Congress to pass the SAVE act at the federal level to require photo ID in every federal election, this is puzzling.

Current Oklahoma law, Title §26-7-114, requires a form of photo identification OR a non photo voter registration card to vote in our elections. It is unlawful to require from a voter a photo, or any other form of ID, when a person presents a non photo voter registration card at the polling place.

Joint Resolution 47 and the gist and language of the State Question may leave the determination of what appropriate ID in Oklahoma will be in the future solely in the hands of the Legislature. Even if it doesn’t, it gives the legal appearance that it does.

In a world where confusion reigns and discussion has been had in the GOP regarding supporting legislation requiring a photo ID, as well as the party passing multiple election integrity resolutions the past few years, this SQ is a head scratcher and seems unnecessary. We already have Title 26-7-114 which is already controlled by the Legislature.

Why aren’t we simply changing the ‘OR’ language in Title 26 to ‘AND’ language and amend the state law to require the ID that can already be shown at the polls in lieu of a voter registration card to be shown WITH a voter registration card or alone as sufficient to act as your ID that matches the name written in the poll books and placing that to the people as a constitutional amendment?

SQ 846 does not include, anywhere in it’s language, the requirement for photo ID to be added to the constitution, which would align Oklahoma with the SAVE act once it is passed, or would simply follow the will of the people to begin with.

This also may confuse people and preclude them in the future from signing any citizen initiative petition to add photo ID to the constitution, since we cannot seem to get the legislature to add it to our statutes. The reason for that is the belief at the Capitol and State Election Board that requiring a photo ID (that citizens by and large already possess at 18 for state identification to drive or receive state or other services) would act as a poll tax. The decision of the Supreme Court in a 2008 case out of Indiana, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board renders that argument null and void.

There are 24 states that require a form of photo ID at the polling place, our neighbor Missouri is just one of them.

The language giving the Legislature the authority to decide what appropriate ID is by statute may also stop people from signing a petition to put photo ID into our constitution, believing that the Legislature would pass photo ID.

All this does is change the constitution to potentially block the ability of the citizens to put photo ID into the constitution by petition, and places the authority solely into the hands of the Legislature that cannot even bring passable, if not a little costly, photo ID bill to the Senate floor for a vote when it’s passed the House and is authored by the chair of the House Elections and Ethics Committee, Representative Jim Olsen. HB 1005 would have directed Service Oklahoma to develop and provide a photo ID voter registration card free to all registered voters in Oklahoma. Restore Liberty Oklahoma supported this bill when it was introduced in 2025.

This SQ is redundant and was kept quiet while the rest of the country debates the SAVE Act. It begs the question of why and also of why it’s necessary. Why not bring Oklahoma into alignment with the potential and very popular national law requiring photo ID in all federal elections and the laws of at least 24 other states and require PHOTO ID be added to our Constitution, directing the Legislature to develop those previsions? As this is written, photo ID could even be disallowed at some point in the future on the whim of a rogue State Legislature, leaving the people confused regarding their ability to change such a decision through an initiative petition.

This SQ is confusing and unnecessary, with all due respect to our legislature, and it’s a mystery why it passed. It definitely throws a lot of smoke over the situation of the photo identification of voters at the polling place.