Last Updated on December 13, 2022, 8:39 PM | Published: December 13, 2022
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma County Election Board decided to strike Chris Cowden’s name Tuesday from the upcoming City Council of Oklahoma City election in February.
The vote was 3-0 in favor of the motion to strike Cowden’s name as a candidate for the Ward 2 OKC City Council seat.
Contest of candidacy
Incumbent Ward 2 City Councilman James Cooper, who is running for re-election, filed to contest Cowden’s candidacy.
Cooper’s contest of Cowden’s candidacy is based on the fact that Cowden has not been registered to vote at his address in Ward 2 for a full year called for in the Oklahoma City Charter.
The Charter says in Article II, Section 6 (e), requirements to run are:
- For a Councilmember position representing a ward, the person must have been a registered voter at an address within the ward for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of a declaration of candidacy.
Until June 30, Cowden was registered to vote at an address within the City of Nichols Hills.
Voting records show that Cowden has been voting regularly while registered under that address all the way up through the June 28 primaries.
Robert Gifford, Cowden’s attorney, argued Tuesday that the language in the City Charter is unclear and Cowden should be allowed to stand for election since he has lived at his address in Ward 2 since 2017.
Cowden’s attorney plans to petition the Oklahoma Supreme Court directly and quickly since the election is coming up soon in February.
Chris Cowden is one of 13 who are running for the four City Council seats up for re-election February 14, 2023.
Arguments
Tuesday, Cooper’s attorney, Denise Lawson, argued that Cowden had not been a registered voter at his address in Ward 2 long enough to meet the City of OKC Charter requirements.
Cowden and his attorney, Gifford, countered that Cowden has been living in the City of Oklahoma City at the address where he filed to run in Ward 2 since 2017 and thus, meets the residency requirement.
Gifford argued that the language about residency and being a registered voter could be read to mean that just being registered to vote but not necessarily in the ward, could be allowable as long as the person was a resident of the ward for one year.
One could read the language of the Charter subsection “both ways” and that the language is “imprecise,” said Gifford.
He asked the Election Board to give Cowden “the benefit of the doubt” and “let the voters decide” how important Cowden’s voter registration address was in the upcoming election.
But, Cooper’s attorney, Lawson, countered that the language of the charter is clear and that in order to achieve Gifford’s argument one would have to add more punctuation and more words to that paragraph in order for it to mean what Gifford suggested in might mean. Cooper was not required to be present and was not present Tuesday.
Board member comments
Election Board Secretary Doug Sanderson expressed the most open skepticism about Gifford’s argument, saying that the language of the City Charter requirement was “not ambiguous” and that he was “puzzled” by Gifford’s argument.
Vice Chair David Glover responded to Gifford that alone, the language of the paragraph might be challenged but that with sections (c) and (d) the language of (e) did not seem to be in error or by happenstance.
The three paragraphs together in the City Charter about who may run in elections for Mayor or councilmember read:
(c)The person must have been a resident of Oklahoma City or an area annexed into Oklahoma City for at least one year;
(d)For the office of the Mayor, the person must have been a registered voter at an address within Oklahoma City for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of a declaration of candidacy; and
(e)For a Councilmember position representing a ward, the person must have been a registered voter at an address within the ward for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of a declaration of candidacy.
Election Board Chair Anita De Toy, responded to Gifford that if there was a comma or a period placed in certain parts of that paragraph, then maybe his argument would be more persuasive.
She said that since it reads the way it does, it seemed clear to her that the intent was for the voting registration to be at the address within the ward.
Cowden insisted throughout the hearing that his “intent” was to be a fully active resident of Oklahoma City. He said that he simply neglected to go ahead and change his voter registration address during the five years prior that he said he was living in the City of Oklahoma City limits.
Afterward, Cowden and his attorney Robert Gifford confirmed to Free Press that they would immediately petition the Oklahoma Supreme Court to hear their argument.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
