How a petition filed in secrecy helped move Oklahoma's capital from Guthrie to OKC

Ballot initiatives has long been used by Oklahoma voters to address issues bypassed by the Legislature. Yet for more than a decade now, that process has been under fire. In 2023, lawmakers filed at least five bills to tighten access to initiative petitions.

More proposals to change the process are expected next year.

Supporters say ballot initiative process gives the public the opportunity to check their lawmakers. Opponents counter the process is a two-edged sword — giving bad ideas the necessary oxygen to survive.

Still, only a few ballot initiatives have dramatically impacted the state, and one changed the entire face of state government.

That was the case at the turn of the century, just a few years after Oklahoma joined the Union. Then-Gov. Charles Haskell used a ballot initiative as the capstone to a 20-year battle that would move the seat of state government.

How the location of Oklahoma's capital wound up in the hands of voters

The story of Haskell's Initiative Petition No. 7 has long been steeped in mystery, more than one broken law and an early range war between Oklahoma City and neighboring Guthrie.

The governor, records show, wanted out of Guthrie. Guthrie, a Republican strong-hold at the time, rankled Haskell, a conservative Democrat. Haskell, along with William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray, the speaker of the House, had successfully steered Jim Crow legislation through both Houses of the Legislature.

Guthrie's Republicans regularly complained about Haskell, and the governor, already sensitive to the editorials of Guthrie's largest newspaper, the Daily State Capitol, told supporters he'd had enough.

Haskell, with the help of several Oklahoma City business leaders, including The Daily Oklahoman publisher E.K. Gaylord, make their next move — a secret scheme to move the Capitol to Oklahoma City.

Written in 1909 with the support of Haskell and a small group of his supporters, Initiative Petition No. 7 asked voters where they wanted the Capitol located. Voters were given three choices: Guthrie, Oklahoma City or Shawnee.

Gaylord said the petition was written by his attorney, W.A. Ledbetter.

Once finalized, distribution of Ledbetter’s initiative petition began almost immediately. With help from circulation men from his newspaper, Gaylord said the petition was spread across the state and quickly gathered enough signatures to be filed.

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Detailed in an unpublished interview with Oklahoman reporter Otis Sullivant — and archived now with the Oklahoma History Center — Gaylord told the story of how he, Haskell and others got petition circulated and signed.

“I got our circulation men to circulate it (the petition) all around the state,” Gaylord told Sullivant. “We got sufficient number and then we got the election set down for that and sent all kinds of speakers out all over the state and we even had as many as four special trains at once going out in all different directions.”

On June 21, 1909, the proposal listed in the name of A. B. Newbern, an employee of The Daily Oklahoman, was filed with then-Secretary of State Bill Cross. The petition had received a total of 39,764 signatures for the constitutional amendment and 27,944 signatures for the location bill.

No records exist that show the petition’s signatures were ever verified or what methods were used by the Oklahoman’s circulation staff to gather those signatures.

Haskell and his supporters believed the signatures were enough to place the measure on a ballot. Still, somehow, despite its public circulation, opponents of the petition were kept in the dark long enough that the five-day protest period — as required by state law at the time — passed before they were aware the petition was viable.

Opponents were kept in the dark about the petition

In 1909, the Oklahoma Constitution’s initiative and referendum clause required all petitions proposing legislation have a five-day notification period. Once the petition had been filed with the secretary of state's office. That protest period, the founders believed, would give opponents time to mount their objections.

Because the group led by Haskell and Gaylord had secretly agreed to hide the petition — bypassing the state law — the petition passed through the notification period without public knowledge of who was behind the proposal and subsequently, without any challenge.

Cross’ assistant at the time, Leo Meyer, said he helped keep word of the petition quiet.

“I filed it in Guthrie at midnight,” Meyer said in an 1933 interview with the Works Progress Administration. That interview, also archived at the Oklahoma History Center, detailed out the scheme that Haskell, Gaylord and others used to call a public vote and move the Capitol.

“When there was no danger of anyone, but the parties involved, knowing it. There was an agreement between members of the committee that everything would be held strictly confidential and that no information would ever be made public," Meyers said.

For five days no newspaper in Oklahoma, including The Daily Oklahoman, published stories about the petition. Then, on July 27, the sixth day after the petition had been filed, the Kansas City Journal printed a story about the plan to move the capital.

Legal fight over the initiative to move Oklahoma's capital begins

Guthrie residents, furious by the scam, turned to the courts. Logan County Judge Frank Dale filed a writ of mandamus and called for a hearing. Dale charged the filing was purposely hidden to “prevent this plaintiff and all other persons from filing objections to said petition within five days as allowed by law.”

Despite its questionable birth, the petition found its way from Cross to Attorney General Charles West for review.

The legal fight over the proposal continued until Jan. 10, 1910, when West sent the ballot title to Haskell. Two months later, Haskell issued the gubernatorial proclamation required for a special election — with a twist.

Though the original petition sent to the governor had an election date of Tuesday, June 14, 1910, Haskell scratched out the date and in his own hand wrote in a new one: Saturday, June 11 — three days before the Tuesday, June 14, election date.

The Saturday vote, records show, was the only time in state history a statewide vote was set for a weekend. Records show that Haskell took a train to Tulsa to await election returns and, somehow, managed to have the entire statewide vote canvassed in just a few hours.

At that time, it often took weeks to determine the come of statewide election.

Early Sunday morning, Haskell declared Oklahoma City to be the winner of the election and, in a move that has become legendary, had the state seal taken from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. In Oklahoma City, Haskell established his office at the Lee-Huckins Hotel and declared the Capitol had been moved.

Like they had before, Guthrie's political leaders sought the help of the courts.

Less than a year later, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the petition was unconstitutional, but the deal was done. Guthrie had lost. The Capitol of the state would remain in Oklahoma City.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How Oklahoma citizens ultimately chose the state's capital city