俄克拉荷马城——在去年的选举日，州众议员乔恩·埃科尔斯(Jon Echols)看到他所在的地区有3个半小时的投票时间，这一地区从俄克拉荷马城的城市核心边缘延伸到郊区，让位于广阔的农村土地。
埃科尔斯说，像美国这样一个拥有“真正、自由和公平选举”的国家，不应该让人们等这么久才参与民主。
埃科尔斯说:“我们都应该为此感到羞耻。”。
他听起来可能像一个投票权倡导者或一个致力于扩大投票渠道的民主党政治家，但埃科尔斯是共和党人，也是共和党控制的俄克拉荷马州众议院的多数党领袖。选举日披露后，他所做的与共和党在其他许多州所做的形成鲜明对比——埃科尔斯帮助深红色的俄克拉荷马州略微更容易投票。
共和党州长凯文·斯蒂特(Kevin Stitt)本周签署了一项立法，将该州的当面提前投票时间延长一天，周六提前投票时间延长一个小时，并做出了一些修改，以确保及时收到邮寄选票进行计数。此举出台之际，投票已成为共和党人的首要问题——但方向相反。从阿肯色州到佛罗里达州，共和党控制的各州都通过了法律，加大了投票的难度，从增加审查到邮件投票上的签名，到限制投票箱的使用时间，所有这些都受到了前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)虚假坚持自己因欺诈而输掉连任竞选的启发。
在俄克拉荷马州，共和党人几乎感觉不到民主党人的威胁，该党承认，放宽投票可能会增加投票率。
虽然佐治亚州的限制导致美国职业棒球大联盟(Mail League Ballage)将全明星赛移至该州，而德克萨斯州提出的立法也引发了街头抗议和美国航空(American Airlines)等大公司的抗议，但俄克拉荷马州的适度改革几乎没有引起争议。他们来到一个担心投票率长期较低的州——根据ElectProject.org的数据，在去年的总统选举中，只有55%的合格人口投票，是该国最低的，该数据跟踪了该国自建国以来的投票率。在全国范围内，超过三分之二的选民投票。
俄克拉荷马州在美国众议院的整个代表团——都是共和党人——听取了特朗普关于虚假选举欺诈的呼吁，并在1月6日投票反对认证选举团的投票，二十多名共和党州议员在一封信中敦促他们这样做。但扩大提前投票的法案仅以少数反对票在众议院和参议院顺利通过。
共和党战略家、俄克拉荷马州共和党前主席查德·亚历山大(Chad Alexander)表示，他认为该措施几乎没有遭到反对的部分原因是，提前一天投票不太可能减缓共和党在这个深红色州的主导地位。
亚历山大说:“在五个选举周期中，我们没有一个民主党人在总统竞选中赢得一个县。”。“每个全州范围内当选的官员都是共和党人，他们是在共和党的淡季当选的。
“俄克拉荷马州非常红，我不认为这一变化会对任何一方产生不相称的影响，”他说。
这与共和党人推动改变选民法的其他州形成鲜明对比:像佛罗里达这样的政治战场;共和党担心其支持率正在下滑的州，如亚利桑那州和佐治亚州;或者甚至是政党正在崛起，但仍然受到过道另一边偶然胜利威胁的地方，比如蒙大拿。在其中的几个州，这些变化极大地阻碍了民主党选民，比如蒙大拿州的大学生，他们不能再使用校园身份证作为有效的投票身份。
俄克拉荷马州长期以来一直是投票法严格的地方。
即使俄克拉荷马州人有额外的一天时间亲自投票，缺席投票，俄克拉荷马州4天半的提前投票也是全国最少的。根据州立法机构全国会议，全国各地提前投票的时间从4天到45天不等，平均时间为19天。
俄克拉荷马州选举委员会秘书保罗·齐里克斯说，增加一天将为选民提供便利，但他怀疑这是否会对俄克拉荷马州的投票率产生巨大影响。
齐里克斯说:“总的来说，我认为如果你看看全国投票率较高的州，我个人认为这与各州提前投票的天数没有太大关系，而与政党和候选人在投票外项目上的支出有很大关系。”
共和党民意测验专家兼策略师帕特·麦克费伦(Pat McFerron)表示，提前投票可能还会抵御对俄克拉荷马州法律的批评，这些法律包括选民身份证要求和经过公证的邮寄选票。
麦克费伦说:“实际上，我要说的是，我与之交谈过的共和党人并不热衷于这一举措，尤其是当你考虑到通常我们提前开放的位置往往会真正有利于民主党候选人的时候。
“老实说，我不认为这是一个公然亲共和党的举动，”他补充说。
众议院少数党领袖、来自大学城诺曼的民主党人艾米丽·维珍(Emily Virgin)说，虽然她很高兴投票日的数量在增加，但要让俄克拉荷马州人更容易投票，还需要做更多的工作。
“这是朝着正确方向迈出的一步，但这是非常小的一步，”维珍说。“与其他州相比，俄克拉荷马州的投票相当困难。在提高选民投票率方面，我们需要做得更多。”
Oklahoma bucks red-state trend, extends early voting
OKLAHOMA CITY -- On Election Day last year, state Rep. Jon Echols was mortified to see a 3 1/2-hour line to vote in his district, which stretches from the edge of Oklahoma City's urban core into suburban neighborhoods that give way to wide stretches of rural land.
A nation like the U.S. — with “real, free and fair elections,” Echols said — shouldn't make people wait so long to participate in democracy.
“We should all be humiliated that we had that," Echols said.
He may sound like a voting rights advocate or a Democratic politician set on expanding access to the ballot, but Echols is a Republican and the majority floor leader of the GOP-controlled Oklahoma House. What he did after that Election Day revelation stands in sharp contrast to what the GOP has done in many other states — Echols helped make it slightly easier to vote in deep-red Oklahoma.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed legislation this week that adds a day to in-person early voting in the state and an extra hour to Saturday early voting, and it also makes changes to ensure mail-in ballots are received in time to be counted. The move comes as voting has become a top issue among Republicans — but in the other direction. GOP-controlled states from Arkansas to Florida have passed laws making it harder to vote, ranging from adding scrutiny to signatures on mail ballots to limiting the time frame drop boxes can be used, and all inspired by former President Donald Trump's false insistence that he lost his reelection bid because of fraud.
In Oklahoma, where Republicans feel little threat from Democrats, the party is acknowledging that easing access to the ballot may increase turnout.
While restrictions in Georgia led Major League Baseball to move the All-Star Game, and Texas' proposed legislation has sparked protests in the streets and from major corporations like American Airlines, Oklahoma's modest changes drew little controversy. They came in a state worried about its perennially low turnout rate — only 55% of the eligible population voted in last year's presidential election, the lowest in the country, according to ElectProject.org, which tracks turnout since the country's founding. Nationally, more than two-thirds of voters cast ballots.
Oklahoma's entire delegation in the U.S. House — all Republicans — heeded Trump's call about fake election fraud and voted against certifying the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, and two dozen Republican state lawmakers urged them in a letter to do so. But the bill to expand early voting sailed through the House and Senate with just a handful of opposing votes.
Chad Alexander, a GOP strategist and former chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party, said he thinks part of the reason the measure faced little opposition is that one extra day of early voting isn't likely to slow the Republican dominance in the deep-red state.
“We haven't had a Democrat carry a single county in a presidential race in five election cycles," Alexander said. “Every statewide elected official is a Republican, and they were elected in an off-year for Republicans.
“Oklahoma is very red, and I don't think this change disproportionately affects either party," he said.
That contrasts with other states where Republicans have pushed to change voter laws: political battlegrounds like Florida; states where the GOP fears its hold is slipping, like Arizona and Georgia; or even places where the party is on the upswing but still threatened by occasional wins on the other side of the aisle, like Montana. In several of these states, the changes disproportionately hamper Democratic voters, like college students in Montana, who can no longer use campus IDs as valid voting identification.
Oklahoma has long stood out as a place with restrictive voting laws.
Even with an extra day for Oklahomans to cast in-person, absentee ballots, Oklahoma’s 4 1/2 days of early voting are among the fewest in the nation. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, early voting periods across the country range from four days to 45 days, with the average length being 19 days.
Oklahoma Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax said the additional day will provide a convenience to voters, but he's skeptical that it will have a dramatic effect on turnout in Oklahoma.
“Generally, I think if you look around the country at states with higher turnout, I personally think it has a lot less to do with things like the number of early voting days that states have available and has a lot more to do with the amount of money political parties and candidates are spending on get-out-the-vote programs," Ziriax said.
Pat McFerron, a Republican pollster and strategist, said adding an early day of voting will likely also fend off criticism about Oklahoma's laws, which include a voter ID requirement and notarized mail-in ballots.
“I would actually say the Republican partisans I’ve spoken to are not enamored with this move,” McFerron said, “especially when you consider that generally our locations that are open early tend to really benefit Democratic candidates.
“Honestly, I don’t think this is a blatantly pro-Republican type of move at all," he added.
House Minority Leader Rep. Emily Virgin, a Democrat from the college town of Norman, said that while she's pleased the number of voting days is increasing, far more needs to be done to make voting more accessible for Oklahomans.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but it is a very small step," Virgin said. “It’s fairly hard to vote in Oklahoma, as compared to other states. We need to be doing a whole lot more in terms of increasing voter turnout."
