Blog Oklahoma Podcast / Blog Oklahoma Podcast 025: Oklahoma Presidential Preferential Primary

In a little over a week Oklahomans will head to the polls to make their pick for their party’s presidential nominee.

Welcome to Blog Oklahoma

On Tuesday March 1st Oklahoma takes part in Super Tuesday where we join many other states in our nation and pick our party’s nominee for President of the United States. So be sure to set and reminder on your phone, it’s very important you go vote.

Now for those of you new to voting in Oklahoma here’s a quick primer.

First off you need to be already registered to vote. If you weren’t registered before February 5th of this year, you’re sitting this one out, sorry. You won’t be able to vote until April or June depending if you have an election scheduled for your area.

Oklahoma has a closed primary system, meaning those of you registered as a Republican vote in the Republican primary and those registered as Democrat vote in the Democratic primary. Now if you registered as an Independent, meaning not Democrat or Republican, you’re not left out this year. The Democratic Party of Oklahoma has invited Independents to vote the Democratic primary. The Republicans did not.

When you go to the polls remember to take a photo id or your voter registration card with you. Oklahoma requires Proof of Identity before you can vote. The photo id must have been issued by the State, Federal, or Tribal government. But also remember, you can use the free voter identification card you received by mail from the County Election Board when you registered to vote. The law allows use of the voter identification card even though it does not include a photo.

The voting process in Oklahoma is actually quite easy. Let me walk you through what I typically do when I go vote. I go to my polling location. I stand in line, not often long. Get up to the table where the voting officials are sitting. They ask you your name and party, they’ll look up your name in a big book, you show them your id, and you sign your name next to your name in the big book. After that, they hand you a ballot and an ink pen. You walk over to one of the voter booths, and then you mark your ballot. To do that, all you do is color in the square next to the name of who you want to vote for. That's it. When your done. You walk over to this voting machine, that kind of looks like a printer, and you feed in your ballot. It beeps at you, and your done. You’ve vote.

The polls are open from 7AM to 7PM. This gives you plenty of time to go vote.

Everything that I’ve told you can be found at the Oklahoma State Elections Board website at ok.gov/elections. If you have any questions at all, it can guide you to the answer. Also the people at your local county elections board will be happy to answer any of your questions. You can find their number in the government section of your phone book, or you can get the number at Oklahoma State Elections Board website.

Oh be sure to check out the Online Voter Tool at Oklahoma State Elections Board website. It will let you confirm your voter registration, find your polling place let you view sample ballots, or track your absentee ballot.

Many people around our state tend to shrug off the primaries. Unlike the general election in November they just think the primaries are not important. When in fact they are very important. To put it bluntly the fringes of both parties will get out to vote in the primary. Those are the people that are typically on the far right and far left of the political spectrum. They are very vocal and active. They are the ones who will pick the nominee, unless you go vote.

So remember Oklahoma. On Tuesday, March 1st. Go vote.

Top 5

Here are my top 5 reasons you need to go vote in the Presidential Preferential Primary on March 1st

The Supreme Court
It’s how your voice is heard
It’s one of the most important things you can do as a citizen
The Supreme Court
What else have you going on on a Tuesday

Links from this episode

This episode's bonus interesting articles

This episode's bonus musical selection

You can listen To the Blog Oklahoma Bonus playlist on YouTube or Spotify. Enjoy.

New To The Playlist:
- Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots: YouTube, Spotify
- Nowhere to Hide by Crobot: YouTube, Spotify
- The Light by Disturbed: YouTube, Spotify