Few Pleased With New Municipal Election System
Hurry up and wait: Tulsa’s new election process frustrates candidates, voters
BY KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writer
Sunday, July 07, 2013
After a frantic eight weeks of campaigning leading up to the June 11 nonpartisan mayoral election, now comes the dead of summer and the long, seemingly endless march to the Nov. 12 general election between former Mayor Kathy Taylor and incumbent Dewey Bartlett.
Why, one might wonder, is there five months between the primary and the general election? Or, worse yet, seven months between the April filing period and the November general election.
And then there is this possibility: If one mayoral candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the June primary, that candidate becomes mayor but doesn’t take office until the first week of December.
How did this happen?
The answer is fairly pedestrian: Under the city’s new nonpartisan election system, there are potentially three elections – a nonpartisan primary, a runoff, if needed, and the general election – compared to two under the previous system.