Politics

Oklahoma legalization measure suffers crushing defeat

Published on March 7, 2023
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Oklahoma voters rejected SQ 820, the statewide adult-use legalization measure, by more than 60%.

Voters across Oklahoma today delivered a decisive defeat to cannabis legalization advocates, rejecting Special Question 820 (SQ 820) by roughly a 62% to 38% margin.

The Associated Press called the race for the “no” vote a little more than an hour after polls closed at 7 p.m. local time.

With most of the rural counties reporting, and the big cities about 50% done counting, SQ 820 was losing, 63% to 37%.

Early returns showed the measure winning in the state’s two biggest cities while losing in all rural areas. But by the end of the night SQ 820 had lost even those urban districts. Oklahoma County, which contains Oklahoma City, ended up voting against the measure, 50.2% to 49.8%. Tulsa turned it down 54-46.

Meanwhile, the rest of the state voted resoundingly against SQ820. Some rural counties saw “no” votes reach 70% and even 80%.

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Bruce Barcott
Bruce Barcott
Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, investigations, and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.
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