UPDATE: State Election Board clarifies voter registration confusion

(Oklahoma City) –State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax cautioned Oklahomans yesterday about unapproved voter registration applications generated from a website called Register2Vote.org, but said a solution is in the works. Under Oklahoma state law, only the official National Mail Voter Registration Application and the Oklahoma Voter Registration Application are accepted in this state.

“I have spoken with the director of Register2Vote.org. I now believe the organization had good intentions and did not deliberately seek to provide Oklahomans with forms that are not valid under our law. Oklahoma election officials will work with Register2Vote.org to ensure that in the future any voter registration applications provided to Oklahomans are valid and approved for use in our state,” Ziriax said.

Register2Vote has issued the following statement:

Register2Vote is a nonpartisan voter registration organization dedicated to helping people register to vote in states that lack Online Voter Registration.  In the past two years, we have helped more than 200,000 people nationwide register to vote, including in Oklahoma. 

We provide voters with access to compliant voter registration forms, including the National Mail Voter Registration Form, and give them a convenient means of filling out their application online and submitting it by mail.

We were recently alerted by the Oklahoma Board of Elections that they were unable to accept certain voter registration applications prepared through Register2Vote, even though those applications were substantively identical to the National Mail Voter Registration Form that Oklahoma accepts.   In total, from May 2019 to February 2020, 19 Register2Vote applications were submitted to Oklahoma registration officials, 17 of which were accepted and 2 of which were rejected. Although this resulted in only a small number of rejected applications, we take the rejection of any application extremely seriously and are actively working with the Oklahoma State Election Board to ensure all individuals affected by this misunderstanding are able to register to vote. We are committed to ensuring that all voters have access to convenient means of registering and will continue to work with state officials in Oklahoma and nationwide toward that end

Oklahomans who submitted an unapproved application generated by Register2Vote.org to their County Election Board will be mailed a letter from the Secretary of the County Election Board explaining why the application was rejected, along with an official Oklahoma Voter Registration Application to ensure the citizens get registered to vote. Voters who believe they submitted an unapproved form or need to register to vote can also download a valid application from the State Election Board website at elections.ok.gov.

Voters with questions, should contact their County Election Board or the State Election Board at (405) 521-2391 or [email protected].