Opinion ID: 1159011
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: purported deceptive and misleading gist statement.

Text: Protestants also claim the Petition before us is deceptive and misleading because they assert the gist statement required to be on each signature page of the Petition by 34 O.S.Supp. 1992, § 3, informed prospective signers that the gist of the proposition was to, [l]imit terms of elected U.S. Senator to a maximum of 12 years and U.S. Representative to a maximum of 6 years. Protestants take the position the Petition does not really limit terms of Senators and Representatives, but in actuality only restricts their access to a named place on the ballot and the proposal would allow incumbents having already served the required number of years to wage a write-in campaign and, if elected, serve additional terms than the limits specified in the gist statement. We disagree with protestants. As we set out more fully in PART II of this opinion which concerns an appeal of the ballot title prepared by the Attorney General, in practical effect, the proposition contained in the Petition is a term limit proposal. This is so for the reason the laws of the State of Oklahoma do not allow the counting of write-in votes. 26 O.S. 1991, § 7-127(1), provides that write-in votes are not valid in Oklahoma. The gist statement as required by § 3 in simple language informs a signer the proposition would impose term limits on United States Representatives and Senators. This is exactly what the proposal would do under current Oklahoma law. Thus, the gist statement cannot be said to be misleading or deceptive and it adequately complied with the provisions of § 3. In re Initiative Petition No. 347, 813 P.2d 1019, 1025-1026 (Okla. 1991); In re Initiative Petition No. 341, 796 P.2d 267, 274 (Okla. 1990).