Special Election Process: When To Vote On New Downtown Arena

Those for and against funding a new arena in Downtown Oklahoma City can now begin a more than 10 week push to convince voters to turnout on December 12th.

A December special election in Oklahoma City doesn’t happen very often. Kyle Loveless with WPA Intelligence says it could be considered a double-edged sword.

“The plus side is it gets people to focus on it. The downside is that not that many people are focused on it,” he said.

He believes this date was warranted because of the project size and the way it would be funded.

“It’ll be up to the campaigns on both sides - those that are for it to get out their message and those are against it to get out their message,” he said.

In the last decade there was only one special election held in the month of December in Oklahoma City.

Fewer than 45,000 people turned out. Loveless doesn’t believe that will be the case this year. A reason he attributes to a strong opposition.

“If people believe it’s a done deal, they’re not going to show up. There has to be a pro and con. There has to be an exchange of ideas.”

The vote will take place in 76 days.