It has been a busy couple of weeks, and I hope eve ryone enjoyed spending time with their loved ones over the Easter weekend.

This week, Senate Bills were first- and secondread and assigned to House committees, and the same will happen to our bills in the Senate.

We’ll have until April 8 to advance bills from our Appropriations & Budget subcommittees, until April 12 to pass them in regular standing committees, and until April 19 to pass them in our full A&B Committee. April 25 is the thirdreading deadline for bills from the opposite chamber.

I am authoring two Senate Bills: Senate Bill 1520 and Senate Bill 2001. Both bills were referred to the Rules Committee this week. I’ll keep everyone updated on their progress in the coming weeks.

So far, during this session, the House has continued to work to ensure Oklahoma has the most free and fair elections in the country. We currently have an excellent system and want to ensure it stays that way.

House Bill 3156 would ban ranked-choice voting within the state. Ranked-choice voting requires voters to designate their top choice in a race, their second choice, and so on down the ballot. It makes voting more confusing and has delayed election results everywhere it has been tried.

For example, if a ballot has five offices and each office has four candidates, each voter would be expected to review and rank four candidates for each race, resulting in 20 votes. If no candidate receives a majority, the least popular candidate is eliminated, and their voters’ votes are reallocated to their secondchoice candidate, repeating until one candidate has a majority.

Ranked-choice voting has already been banned in Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota; hopefully, Oklahoma will be the next state to ban it. I’m proud to serve as a coauthor on this bill.

The House is dedicated to ensuring the integrity of our elections and does not want Washington, D.C.’s values to influence our state. To prevent such influence, we are taking all necessary steps.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any concerns at 405-557-7302 or neil. hays@okhouse.gov.

Rep. Neil Hays, a Republican, serves District 13 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers McIntosh, Muskogee and Wagoner County.