Limited early voting days, locations spark concern in Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — We're in the final stretch of early voting and the lines were still just as long on Friday, as they were on day one.
Many counties in Oklahoma only have one early voting location and there's not many days to cast your ballot.
"We need to ensure that there is as few barriers and obstacles for Oklahomans to vote as possible and that includes opening up more voting and polling places. We know that this year is one of the most important elections of all times," said Tamya Cox-Toure, executive director, ACLU of Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, there are only three and a half days of early voting.
"Oklahoma's really behind the rest of the country on this and I'd love to see Oklahoma move toward having two full weeks of early voting in Oklahoma," said Andy Moore, CEO, Let's Fix This.
Senator Adam Pugh (R-Edmond) was at Mitch Park in Edmond handing out tacos to those waiting four hours in line, he agrees there's not enough sites or days for early voting.
"We've got a shortage of Election Day workers and so we've tried to raise the pay there just to show them that we appreciate them helping us serve, but I think we're probably going to need to look at, again, either extending the early voting window with more days," said Sen. Pugh.
Representative Andy Fugate (D-Del City) recently authored a bill to expand early voting to two Saturdays, instead the legislature added one day, a Wednesday.
"If you add an extra day of voting during banker's hours, bankers will show up. It's sad that on Saturday we only give them a half a day, that's when people have time to vote," said Representative Fugate.
Representative Fugate believes the legislature has no interest in adding extra Fridays or polling sites.
He believes the only way for change is through citizens putting it on a state question in the future.
News 4 reached out to the Oklahoma County Election Board who was unable to comment on camera because they were too busy. They told us, adding more locations would be impossible because they do not have the resources or staff.
The last day of early voting is Saturday from 8 a.m. until to 2 p.m.