The Secretary of the State Election Board, Paul Ziriax, released a statement on Thursday (November 10) regarding the November 8 General Election and voter turnout.

The text of his comments follows:

“For election officials, the General Election is our Super Bowl. No election is perfect, but overall this one went pretty smoothly. I want to offer a big ‘thank you’ to all of the poll workers, county election board members and staff, State Election Board staff, and other election officials who worked very hard to ensure Oklahomans were able to vote in a free and fair election.

“I am very appreciative of our partner agencies who help us protect Oklahoma’s election system and keep it secure. And I want to thank the voters who took the time to exercise their right to vote.”

Additional Information about Oklahoma’s 2022 General Election:

* Official pre-election voter registration showed 2,295,906 registered voters in Oklahoma. At the 2018 gubernatorial election, there were 2,120,843 registered voters.

* Preliminary, unofficial 2022 General Election results show turn out to be about 50.3% of registered voters. This compares to 56.15% of registered voters in 2018.

* Preliminary, unofficial 2022 General Election results show about 1.155 million ballots scanned – about 36,000 fewer than the nearly 1.191 million in 2018.

* Preliminary, unofficial 2022 General Election results show more than 480,000 voters marked “straight party” – 69.82% for Republicans, 29.08% for Democrats, and 1.10% for Libertarians. (Reminder: A vote for an individual candidate overrides a “straight party” mark.)

* Election Results are unofficial until certified. Any provisional ballots determined to be eligible will be counted by County Election Boards and added to the vote totals on Friday, November 11. County Election Boards meet today (Friday, November 11) at 5 p.m. to certify county-level election results.

Next week, the State Election Board will meet on Tuesday, November 15 at 5 p.m. to certify results for federal and state races.