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Election Board details new election schedule, early-voting sites and filing changes
Summary
Cleveland County Election Board Secretary Bryant Rains thanked commissioners for a new facility and outlined legislative changes: SB 652 sets five election months starting 2025; SB 890 moves campaign filings to the Ethics Commission's Guardian 2.0; early voting expanded to five sites including the Absentee Shawnee Tribal Resource Center.
Bryant Rains, Secretary of the Cleveland County Election Board, updated the Board of County Commissioners Oct. 6 on legislation and operational changes that will affect local elections.
Rains thanked the board for the new Election Board facility and noted a series of changes from the 2025 legislative session. "On behalf of myself and my staff, they sincerely thank the BOCC for the new facility. It is absolutely incredible," he said.
Rains summarized Senate Bill 652, effective in 2025, which establishes five set months for elections each year—February, April, June, August and November—and creates an optional December election every four years starting in 2029. He said the Presidential Preferential Primary will continue on its four-year March schedule and that the governor may call special elections as needed to fill vacancies.
To prepare for likely higher turnout due to fewer election dates, the Election Board has expanded to five early-voting locations: One-on-One Technology Center (South Oklahoma City), Moore Public Library, Sooner Mall (Norman), Noble Public Library, and the Absentee Shawnee Tribal Resource Center near Lake Thunderbird.
Rains also described Senate Bill 890 (effective Nov. 1), which shifts county campaign filings to the Ethics Commission's new Guardian 2.0 system; county boards will retain previously filed documents for the statutorily required retention period. Rains said the office is also launching an "I Voted" sticker design contest open to students in grades 1–5 across Cleveland County.
The board did not take formal action on the legislative items during the meeting; the presentation served to inform commissioners and the public of operational changes ahead of the new election schedule.
