Henry Names Clingman To OSF Post

Governor Henry today appointed Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Michael Clingman as director of the Office of State Finance.

Clingman will succeed Tony Hutchison, who resigned the budget post earlier this year.

There's speculation the move may have been made to promote Clingman before Senate Republicans, who control the appointment of the Election Board secretary now that they have a majority in the Senate, could have replaced him with their own secretary.

Clingman has 20 years of experience in public service. Before his appointment as Election Board Secretary in 2001, he served as Commissioner of the Oklahoma Insurance Fund, Administrator of the Oklahoma Workers Compensation Court and Chief Executive Officer of the Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission.

Clingman also served on the staff of Governor George Nigh and worked in the insurance industry.

Clingman will begin work as OSF director on December 1st.

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Clingman: State Could See Record Turnout

From The Tulsa World ~ Oklahoma could see record turnout at the polls on Tuesday when voters pick a president and decide the fates of other issues and candidates on the ballot.

“A record would not be out of the realm of possibility at all,” said State Election Board Secretary Michael Clingman.

Clingman is predicting between 1.4 million and 1.5 million voters. If 1.5 million people vote, it would be a record, Clingman said.

During the last presidential election, the state saw 1.46 million voters, he said, which was up 150,000 from 2000.

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Benge Backs Clingman On Felon Voting

House Speaker Chris Benge said today he agrees with a state Election Board official that former felons cannot register to vote until their full sentence has expired.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently said that former Oklahoma felons should be able to register to vote in the upcoming presidential election if they are no longer incarcerated, have completed any probation or parole requirements and are no longer under the supervision of the prison system.

But, Election Board Secretary Michael Clingman said he believes the law forbids former felons from registering to vote until the length of their original sentence has ended, even if they do not serve the entire time.

Benge said he supports Clingman’s interpretation of the law.

“It is vital that we ensure our laws are properly interpreted and strictly followed,” said Benge. “When a sentence is handed down by our court system, we need to respect that amount of time, regardless of whether the criminal spends it all in jail or not.”

State law says “Persons convicted of a felony shall be ineligible to register for a period of time equal to the time prescribed in the judgment and sentence.”

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Voter Turnout: Pathetic, At 18%

Many Oklahoma voters took Tuesday off. The turnout, Election Board Secretary Mike Clingman says, was the lowest since 1952 with a turnout of about 18 percent.

Clingman says it was in 1944 that a lower total in a U. S. Senate primary in a presidential election year was recorded. Only 328,974 cast ballots on Tuesday.

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Voters: Ho-Hum

Today's primaries are not drawing large numbers of voters to polls, it appears in early afternoon.

Mike Klingman, Election Board secretary, said, "There haven't been any high turnouts that we're aware of."

Polls remain open until 7 p.m.

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Primary Turnout Hard To Predict

Voter turnout in Tuesday's primaries is hard to predict, most agree.

Election Board Secretary Mike Clingman says he doesn't know what to expect.

There are no super-hot primaries in either party and while there are several that have been hotly-contested, they haven't risen to the level that's likely to increase turnout.

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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Republicans Win Top Ballot Spots

Election Board Secretary Mike Clingman supervised a drawing on Monday that placed the names of Republican candidates first on the November 4th general election ballot.

“We’ll take it,” Republican Party Chairman Gary Jones said as Kitti Asberry, vice chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, opened a sealed envelope to determine which party’s candidates would be listed first.

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Chaos At The Election Board; Murphy Candidacy Challenge Delayed To Monday

The Election Board today postponed hearing a challenge to Republican Corporation Commission candidate Dana Murphy after two members of the three-member board recused themselves.

Board members Tom Prince of Edmond and Ramon Watkins of Tulsa each stepped aside Friday from hearing the challenge against Corporation Commission candidate Dana Murphy. They did not give a reason for recusing themselves from the case.

Election Board Secretary Mike Clingman said Governor Henry will appoint two interim members to hear the case with the remaining board member, Susan Turpen of Oklahoma City.

The hearing now is scheduled for Monday morning. The challenge was filed by Rep. Rob Johnson of Kingfisher, who opposes Murphy for the Republican nomination for the two-year, unexpired term on the Corporation Commission now held by Democrat Jim Roth.

Johnson claims that Murphy altered a notarized document by signing her name differently than it appeared on her filing declaration of candidacy form. A video of the filing shows Election Board Secretary Mike Clingman advising Murphy to do so, and marking through one signature after she added a second signature.

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