Three pending special elections to be held in districts based on 2010 census

Oklahoma state Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax announced today (Friday, November 18) that special elections in 2012 will be conducted using the new state legislative districts lines crafted as a result of the 2010 census.

In a “special election update” sent to CapitolBeatOK, Ziriax said:

“The State Election Board will conduct special elections in 2012 using the district boundaries created by the State Senate Redistricting Act of 2011 and the State House of Representatives Redistricting Act of 2011.”  

“The Election Board’s general counsel at the Attorney General’s Office has provided a letter of counsel advising that, in her opinion, the 2012 special elections should be conducted using the new district boundaries. The redistricting acts repealed the old district lines on November 1, 2011.” 

“The acts instruct the State Election Board to conduct the elections in 2012 for the Senate and the House using the new district boundaries, and the acts do not distinguish between general elections and special elections.”

Affected districts include:

– State Representative District 71 (Tulsa County)

– State Senator District 46 (Oklahoma County)

– State Senator District 20 (Kingfisher, Logan, Noble and Pawnee counties)

“Candidate filing packets for the special elections are available on the State Election Board’s website.”

House District 71 is now represented by state Rep. Dan Sullivan, who is leaving the Legislature on November 30 to take charge of the Grand River Dam Authority. 

Senate District 46 is now represented by Senator Majority Leader Andrew Rice of Oklahoma City. He is resigning effective Jan. 15, 2012. Special election primaries could be held as early as mid-February. State Rep. Al McAffrey, House District 88, has announced his candidacy. 

At least one Republican, Jason Reese, has indicated he is considering entering the contest.

Senate District 20 is the seat held by the late David Myers of Ponca City, who died last week.