SB990 would authorize the Legislature to initiate a recall election to remove a statewide elected official from office.

The Senate passed SB990 on March 27, 2025, by a vote of  31 to 15. We have assigned pluses to the nays because recall elections are illegitimate populist measures designed to circumvent the longstanding constitutional remedies of impeachment and expulsion. As with referendums and “citizens’ initiatives,” they relegate the solemn duties of the people’s elected representatives to the will of the masses at large, replacing checks and balances with chaos and instability. Article VIII, Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution reserves impeachment for statewide officials who engage in unlawful activity or fail to fulfill their responsibilities. Moreover, Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees to “every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” meaning government limited to the “rule of law,” as opposed to the unbridled whims of “majority rule." Recall elections are one of the many “dangers of democracy” that subject citizens and lawmakers alike to the “tyranny of the majority.”