Oklahoma removes 450,000 from voter rolls as part of election integrity efforts

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) announced Wednesday that the state has removed nearly half a million ineligible voters from its voter registration list.

According to the state, since 2021, 453,000 individuals — including 194,962 inactive voters, 143,682 who moved out-of-state, 97,065 deceased voters, 14,993 with duplicate registrations, and 5,607 felons — have been purged from its rolls.

‘Only U.S. citizens who are residents of Oklahoma may register to vote in our state.’

The update was provided by the governor and state election officials as a part of their “ongoing efforts to maintain Oklahoma’s status as a national leader in election integrity,” according to a recent press release that noted “routine voter list maintenance” is required by law.

Stitt stated, “Voting is our most sacred duty as Americans— and every Oklahoman wants to know their vote is securely cast and properly counted.”

“The State Election Board and the Secretary of State’s office continue to go above and beyond in their responsibility to ensure only eligible Oklahomans can vote in our elections. Their progress reassures me we will continue to lead the nation in election integrity efforts,” the governor added.

Secretary of State Josh Cockroft said that the collaborative efforts between the governor’s office, the State Election Board, and lawmakers have ensured that “Oklahoma has fortified our electoral process.”

“We’ve aggressively pursued policies to ensure voting is secure and accurate, and we’re innovating to protect our elections from emerging technology like AI. In Oklahoma, every eligible citizen will have their vote counted and their voice heard,” Cockroft stated.

In a recent post on X, Stitt wrote, “You may have heard about ‘ballot harvesting’ in other states. That doesn’t happen in Oklahoma.”

“Only U.S. citizens who are residents of Oklahoma may register to vote in our state,” he continued. “And Oklahoma state law explicitly prohibits non-citizens from accessing voter registration services.”

Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) made a similar announcement, noting that his state had removed more than one million ineligible voters from its rolls since 2021, Blaze News reported. Abbott attributed that sweeping clean-up to Senate Bill 1, which created uniform voting hours across Texas and banned drive-through voting and unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots.

Abbott called SB 1 the “strongest election laws in the nation to protect the right to vote and to crack down on illegal voting.”

“These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state,” Abbott remarked.

According to the governor’s office, more than 6,500 of the one million individuals removed from the voter rolls were noncitizens. Additionally, 1,930 of them have reportedly previously voted in an election. Those instances of noncitizens voting were referred to the Attorney General’s Office for an investigation.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!