OK: just the main parties?

[TommyC1776]

How come sometimes Oklahoma just has the 2 main candidates on the ballot more than any other state?  it seems that way.

[Adlai Stevenson]

Oklahoma actually has quite a tradition of strong third-party candidates, just look at the 2004 Senate, 2002 Governor, 2002 Senate and 1994 Governor races on the Atlas.

[TommyC1776]

Oklahoma actually has quite a tradition of strong third-party candidates, just look at the 2004 Senate, 2002 Governor, 2002 Senate and 1994 Governor races on the Atlas.

I was talking more Presidential races.

[Bacon King]

Oklahoma actually has quite a tradition of strong third-party candidates, just look at the 2004 Senate, 2002 Governor, 2002 Senate and 1994 Governor races on the Atlas.

I was talking more Presidential races.

draconian ballot laws.

[Joe Biden 2020]

A lot of those third parties (not independents) are not recognized in the Sooner State.  The exception would be the Constitution Party, but even that never has enough signatures to get on the ballot.  Oklahoma, in any level, never has any third party candidates on the ballot other than Independents and Indies have trouble themselves on our federal ballots.  Ralph Nader was never on Oklahoma ballots in either 2000 or 2004 and he ran as a Green in 2000 and Indy in 2004.  Ross Perot, I believe, was on the ballot in 1992, because my late paternal grandmother voted for Perot then, but she died in March 1996, but I don't think Perot was on the ballot in 1996.  He may have been, I'm just not sure.

[True Democrat]

A lot of those third parties (not independents) are not recognized in the Sooner State.  The exception would be the Constitution Party, but even that never has enough signatures to get on the ballot.  Oklahoma, in any level, never has any third party candidates on the ballot other than Independents and Indies have trouble themselves on our federal ballots.  Ralph Nader was never on Oklahoma ballots in either 2000 or 2004 and he ran as a Green in 2000 and Indy in 2004.  Ross Perot, I believe, was on the ballot in 1992, because my late paternal grandmother voted for Perot then, but she died in March 1996, but I don't think Perot was on the ballot in 1996.  He may have been, I'm just not sure.

Perot was on every ballot both times.

[StateBoiler]

Oklahoma actually has quite a tradition of strong third-party candidates, just look at the 2004 Senate, 2002 Governor, 2002 Senate and 1994 Governor races on the Atlas.

I was talking more Presidential races.

The (Republican) Secretary of State in a lawsuit brought by I think the Libertarians openly stated to the judge that it is in the state's interest to only have two parties in the ballot a couple years ago. There's an article on Ballot Access News' website that talked about it. I'll see if I can find it.

[TommyC1776]

A lot of those third parties (not independents) are not recognized in the Sooner State.  The exception would be the Constitution Party, but even that never has enough signatures to get on the ballot.  Oklahoma, in any level, never has any third party candidates on the ballot other than Independents and Indies have trouble themselves on our federal ballots.  Ralph Nader was never on Oklahoma ballots in either 2000 or 2004 and he ran as a Green in 2000 and Indy in 2004.  Ross Perot, I believe, was on the ballot in 1992, because my late paternal grandmother voted for Perot then, but she died in March 1996, but I don't think Perot was on the ballot in 1996.  He may have been, I'm just not sure.

You know what u are right.  Third parties do get on the Oklahoma ballot.  I was just thinking about the 2004 Election and the 1948 Election.

[minionofmidas]

Oklahoma actually has quite a tradition of strong third-party candidates, just look at the 2004 Senate, 2002 Governor, 2002 Senate and 1994 Governor races on the Atlas.

I was talking more Presidential races.

The (Republican) Secretary of State in a lawsuit brought by I think the Libertarians openly stated to the judge that it is in the state's interest to only have two parties in the ballot a couple years ago.

You mean he claimed that. Your sentence supposes that his claim is correct.

[StateBoiler]

^ As the Secretary of State is Chief Election Official and is responsible for ballots and who appears on them, I think you're arguing semantics.

Here's the most recent Oklahoma ballot access case from February:

http://www.ballot-access.org/2007/02/28/libertarians-lose-oklahoma-ballot-access-case-in-state-court-of-appeals/

Here is one from May 2005:

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[minionofmidas]

^ As the Secretary of State is Chief Election Official and is responsible for ballots and who appears on them, I think you're arguing semantics.

I am indeed.

[Cubby]

Oklahoma has always had strict ballot access laws. It was one of Eugene Debs's (Socialist) best states back in 1912. Why would a frontier state (at that time) give a socialist 16% of the vote? Because Teddy Roosevelt (Bull Moose) couldn't get on the ballot, so most of his supporters voted for Debs as a protest.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why would a frontier state (at that time) give a socialist 16% of the vote? Because Teddy Roosevelt (Bull Moose) couldn't get on the ballot, so most of his supporters voted for Debs as a protest.

Not so; Debs took 8% there in 1908 (when he was polling just under 3% nationally) and Benson took 15% there in 1916. Note that the Socialists were strongest in the likes of Little Dixie rather than in more Republican areas.
The reason for the sharp Socialist decline in Oklahoma after the First World War is because their organisation was cynically destroyed by the state's political establishment during the war (of course this goes for the Socialist Party across the U.S in certain respects; but the repression was worse in Oklahoma than elsewhere).

[Cubby]

Why would a frontier state (at that time) give a socialist 16% of the vote? Because Teddy Roosevelt (Bull Moose) couldn't get on the ballot, so most of his supporters voted for Debs as a protest.

Not so; Debs took 8% there in 1908 (when he was polling just under 3% nationally) and Benson took 15% there in 1916. Note that the Socialists were strongest in the likes of Little Dixie rather than in more Republican areas.
The reason for the sharp Socialist decline in Oklahoma after the First World War is because their organisation was cynically destroyed by the state's political establishment during the war (of course this goes for the Socialist Party across the U.S in certain respects; but the repression was worse in Oklahoma than elsewhere).

I see.

Well maybe they did better in Little Dixie because they felt it was better to vote Socialist than Republican (the Yankee Party!!)

[Colin]

Why would a frontier state (at that time) give a socialist 16% of the vote? Because Teddy Roosevelt (Bull Moose) couldn't get on the ballot, so most of his supporters voted for Debs as a protest.

Not so; Debs took 8% there in 1908 (when he was polling just under 3% nationally) and Benson took 15% there in 1916. Note that the Socialists were strongest in the likes of Little Dixie rather than in more Republican areas.
The reason for the sharp Socialist decline in Oklahoma after the First World War is because their organisation was cynically destroyed by the state's political establishment during the war (of course this goes for the Socialist Party across the U.S in certain respects; but the repression was worse in Oklahoma than elsewhere).

I see.

Well maybe they did better in Little Dixie because they felt it was better to vote Socialist than Republican (the Yankee Party!!)

Possibly though you see the same sorts of voting trends in the rest of the Great Plains as well, with good areas of strength in both Kansas and Nebraska. Though I do not doubt that, especially for poor sharecroppers throughout the South, they were the logical alternative to the elitist Democrats and the Yankee Southern destroying black loving Republicans.

Mostly in Oklahoma though, and throughout the Great Plains and Texas, Socialist voters came out of the same radical agrarian movements that formed the basis of the People's (Populist) Party in the 1890's and fueled earlier campaigns by William Jennings Bryan.