Some Voters Claim Their Registration Was Changed Without Their Knowledge, Authorities Investigate

Some Oklahomans experienced frustration and confusion when they showed up at the polls Tuesday. These voters are saying they have been registered as democrat or republican their whole lives, but when they tried to vote in the primaries, they were registered independent.

State Senator Shane Jett (R-Shawnee) heard from seven of his constituents who experienced similar problems. “Is this a glitch or an operator error, or is this something nefarious?” Jett said.

He is now working with the state election board to find solutions.

“We’re just going back to see when it happened, how it happened,” Jett said. 

Paul Ziriax, secretary of the State Election Board says this may be user error.

“I can tell you three examples that you provided of individuals that News 9 has heard from. In all three instances, the voter registration records were initiated by the voter,” Ziriax said.

According to Ziriax, Oklahoma’s registration system is very secure.

“There are not any registration changes made by anyone but the voter,” Ziriax said. “There isn’t an ability for someone to just come into the office and say ‘I want to change Paul Ziriax’ party affiliation to another party.’ That’s not the way it works.”

Ziriax says if you believe your voter registration is inaccurate, whether it's the wrong date of birth or address, or an incorrect party affiliation; the first call you should make is to your county election board.

“Your county election board officials are gonna be the repository of your info and they are there to serve the public,” said Ziriax.

Sen. Jett says he is also more than willing to help his constituents, or any Oklahomans, to make sure they have the ability to vote for the candidate of their choosing.

Both Jett and Ziriax are going through the data to make sure state elections are free and fair.

“Before we jump to conclusions, we’re going to put all the data in place and methodically go through it, so we can single out what caused the problem and, most importantly, make sure it never happens again,” Jett said.

To visit the state election board website, visit this link: https://oklahoma.gov/elections.html