By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
Earlier this month, three now-former members of the Oklahoma Green The Vote (GTV) group posted a video to Facebook admitting that the signature numbers that they had released for their SQ797 cannabis legalization initiative in late July were greatly exaggerated.
The group had posted an image online showing that 132,537 signatures had been collected, but in reality, they had only gathered 31,244 of the required 124,000.
GTV President Isaac Caviness said that inflating the signature numbers early in the campaign was not malicious and was intended to help generate support for the initiative and encourage more people to sign it. But ultimately, the tactic did not end up working for the group as SQ797 has officially failed to collect the amount required to be included on the November ballot.
Oklahoma Secretary of State James Williamson announced Monday that, after counting all of the signatures that GTV turned in, the group had fallen short of the requirement by more than 20,000.
Secretary Williamson’s statement comes just after Caviness made an announcement of his own on Sunday. In a Facebook Live broadcast, the GTV president declared that he was resigning from the organization.
“There’s a lot of people that want to see me continue to lead Green The Vote because they understand the passion and work that I’ve put in,” said Caviness in a Facebook Live broadcast. “But I have to look at more than what just a handful of people want or what a lot of people want.”
He said that after running GTV for three years, he had to look at personal reasons as part of his decision as well, emphasizing the need to take care of his family.
“I don’t want this to look like a situation where I’m running, or I’m being forced to step down,” he said. “It’s just a matter of trying to do what’s best for the movement right now, so I really hope everybody can understand that and respect that.”
For the moment, Damon Beck will be the interim director working with the GTV team through the transition period as they search for new leadership.
