SQ 845 Would Rewrite Who Screens Oklahoma’s Judges. It’s on the November Ballot.
The official ballot title would update 1967 congressional maps, drop party caps on the governor’s Judicial Nominating Commission appointees, and let any number of commissioners be lawyers. It is the other statewide constitutional vote on Nov. 3.The runoff is over. The governor’s race will take the airtime. The other statewide vote sitting on every Oklahoma ballot on Nov. 3 is State Question 845.
46th State already walked through SQ 847, the property-tax amendment. The State Election Board lists a second constitutional question for the same day: a rewrite of the Judicial Nominating Commission, the 15-member body that screens who can even be considered for Oklahoma’s appellate courts.
If you have not read the official ballot title, you have not finished the November ballot.
1. What the commission actually is
Article 7-B, Section 3 of the Oklahoma Constitution creates a 15-member Judicial Nominating Commission inside the judicial department.
As the constitution stands today:
The governor appoints six members, at least one from each congressional district “existing at the date of the adoption of this Article.” Those six cannot be licensed to practice law, and they cannot have an immediate family member who is. No more than three of the governor’s six may belong to any one political party.
Six more members are Oklahoma Bar Association lawyers, also tied to those same 1967-era districts, “elected by the other active members of their district.”
Three members sit at large. They also cannot be lawyers and cannot have a lawyer in the immediate family. One is selected by at least eight commissioners, one by the Senate president pro tempore, and one by the House speaker. No more than two at-large members may belong to any one political party.
After the original staggered terms, those members serve six years, except the at-large member, who serves two. Commissioners may not succeed themselves.
That is the current screen for appellate vacancies. SQ 845 would change the screen.
2. The maps are from 1967
The official ballot title, filed with the Secretary of State on Aug. 13, is blunt about the first change. “Currently appointments are based on congressional districts as constituted in 1967.” If voters approve the measure, the governor’s six and the Bar’s six would be named “including one from each congressional district as of the time of their appointment” (governor) or “as of the date of selection” (Bar).
Oklahoma does not still have six congressional districts drawn in 1967. The constitution does. A voter who thinks “congressional district” means the map they used last Tuesday is reading a different document.
3. Who may sit
The title then strips limits that were written in as lay-member guardrails.
It “will permit any number of the commissioners to be licensed attorneys in Oklahoma or another state.” Today the governor’s six and the three at-large seats are closed to lawyers. The Bar already names six lawyers. “Any number” means the other nine seats could be lawyers too.
“The prohibition against immediate family members from practicing law will be removed.” That ban, added in a 2010 amendment, applies today to the governor’s appointees and the at-large members.
It “removes restrictions on political party membership for members appointed by the Governor and at-large members.” Today’s text caps the governor at three from any one party and the at-large seats at two from any one party. Those caps would go.
The title also changes how the at-large seats are filled. Today the Senate pro tem and the House speaker each name one. The ballot title says “no less than eight members select three at-large members.” That is the voter-facing language. It is not a small clerical edit.
4. How long they stay
Current law: “No Commissioner shall be permitted to succeed himself or herself.”
The official title: “The measure also permits a commissioner to succeed himself or herself.”
On terms, the title says “at-large commissioners would serve a two-year term, and all other commissioners would serve a six-year term.” That matches the current split more closely than some television summaries that flipped it. Vacancies would be filled the same way the seat was filled, for the rest of the term. The title says the measure “will not have a fiscal impact.”
5. How it got here, and when you vote
This is House Joint Resolution 1024, carried by Rep. Anthony Moore and Sen. Todd Gollihare. The House passed it 78-13 on March 12, 2025. The Senate passed it 35-8 on April 9, 2026, and failed to put it on a special election. It is Legislative Referendum 379. The State Election Board and the Secretary of State both list it for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, alongside SQ 847.
Ballotpedia News, reviewing the roll calls, reported that 13 House Republicans voted no, and that the Senate no votes were seven Democrats and one Republican. A conservative argument for 845 is not “every Republican already agrees.”
The conservative case for a yes is straightforward. An elected governor should not have to stock a judicial screen with 1967 geography, a hard party cap, and a rule that the governor’s six cannot be lawyers and cannot even have a lawyer in the house. The maps are 59 years old. Voters, not a 1967 district line, should decide whether that is still the right way to pick the people who pick the judges.
The strongest case against a blind yes is also straightforward. Dropping the party caps, the lawyer ban, and the family-lawyer ban, then allowing members to succeed themselves, concentrates more of the screen in whoever holds the governor’s office and whoever sits on the commission. The Bar still names six of 15 under the title. This is not “the Bar is gone.” It is a rewrite of the other nine seats and of the maps. Anyone selling 845 as housekeeping is not reading the title. Anyone selling it as a full political takeover of the courts is skipping the six Bar seats that remain.
The State Election Board says the next statewide election is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The voter registration deadline for that election is Friday, Oct. 9. Absentee ballot requests are due by 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19. For a general election, the Board says early voting is 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday before Election Day, plus 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. that Saturday, in the county where you are registered. For Nov. 3, that is Oct. 28 through Oct. 31. Confirm your sample ballot in the OK Voter Portal. Do not take a TV graphic’s word for who is on it.
Read the SQ 845 title. Then decide.
WHY IT MATTERS
Nov. 3 is not only a governor’s race. SQ 845 rewrites the body that screens Oklahoma appellate judges: the maps, who may sit, party caps, and whether members can succeed themselves. SQ 847 is the tax question. This is the courts question. Registration closes Oct. 9.
Comments