Some Oklahoma politicians are celebrating high turnout Tuesday — for a runoff — but the numbers show fewer voters made it to the polls in August than they did in June’s primary election, and Tulsa’s turnout remains low.
“A lot of people kind of feel like our votes don’t matter, but I think in the end they do,” August Campbell said after voting at Sand Springs Church of Christ Tuesday. “Like my pawpaw said, ‘I want to make my voice known,’ so me too.”
Statewide and in Tulsa County, the majority of races Aug. 25 attracted less than 40% of eligible voter turnout. Oklahomans weighed in on two statewide questions and Republican races for governor and state superintendent of public instruction. In Tulsa, six city council seats were contested, and local voters had an added question about the city’s franchise agreement with Oklahoma Natural Gas.
“The week of school starting is a tough time to have a runoff,” Mike Mazzei told reporters in Tulsa Wednesday.
The Trump-endorsed politician secured the Republican nod for governor after beating current Attorney General Gentner Drummond by about 2,000 votes.
“We actually saw a larger than expected turnout for a runoff,” Mazzei said. “I don’t know the final numbers, but I think it was the largest voter turnout for a primary runoff in the history of the state.”
The last comparable Republican runoff for governor was in 2018, when Gov. Kevin Stitt faced Mick Cornett. Mazzei is right that the number of Republican voters who came out for the runoff Tuesday was higher than 2018, with 371,309 votes compared to 302,208.
But there are also more Republicans registered in Oklahoma this time around. Nearly 29% of the 1.29 million registered Republican voters visited the ballot box Tuesday, compared to just more than 31% of the 966,490 registered Republicans in 2018.
Runoff turnout was also up for the state superintendent race, though slightly lower than the governor’s — despite being on the same ballot.
More than 28% of registered Republicans cast a vote between Robert Franklin and James Taylor, up from 24% turnout in Ryan Walters’ 2022 runoff race. Turnout was down from June to August for both Republican runoffs by several thousand voters.
For the two state questions, which appeared on every registered voter’s ballot, turnout sat around 22%. In June, which included party primaries, a state question regarding minimum wage brought 26% of the electorate to the ballot box. Tulsa’s participation rate dipped for constitutional amendments too, from 101,358 votes on minimum wage to 89,353 on voter ID requirements.
“At the end of the day local voting is going to affect us more directly, more than what the federal government decides,” said Alan Santiago, a voter at Tulsa’s Eastland Baptist Church. “At the end of the day we have the most power to decide who gets into power and who gets out of power.”
In the City of Tulsa, voter turnout across city council races was low, even with hotly contested races in north and midtown Tulsa.
In District 1, incumbent Vanessa Hall-Harper and leading challenger Corinice Wilson will go on to a Nov. 3 runoff. Their race saw 4,223 total votes cast across Tulsa and Osage counties, down slightly from Hall-Harper’s last August election in 2024.
District 1 voter Ora Lee Williams says she always comes out to vote. Her precinct, Lacy Park Community Center, saw 15.2% turnout Tuesday and 170 votes cast in person for the city council race.
“All of us should vote,” Williams said. “Voting means equality for everybody. If you don’t vote, you don’t have no say.”
Turnout was highest in midtown Tulsa, which featured the only open City Council race after Carol Bush decided not to seek re-election. With 9,218 votes cast altogether, Pete Regan won the three-person race for District 9 over Ben Johnson and Shawn Tiemann. The highest rate of in-person turnout at a single precinct was just over 37% by 31st and Harvard.
Some of the lowest Election Day turnout was reported in southwest Tulsa’s District 2, where Anthony Archie was re-elected to a second council term.
Discovered by Documenters
This story included reporting from Documenters Madelyn Sugg, Sam Tennyson and Michael Searles, who spent time interviewing Tulsa County voters at the polls Aug. 25. Find out more about how Tulsa Documenters works here.
Tulsa Flyer interim managing editor Ginnie Graham contributed reporting.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
