A. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of a member of the State Senate or the State House of Representatives, the vacancy shall be filled at a Special Election to be called by the Governor within thirty (30) days after the vacancy occurs; provided, no special election shall be called if the vacancy occurs in an even-numbered year if the term of the office expires the same year.
B. If in an even-numbered year an incumbent State Senator with two (2) or more years remaining in the term for which elected shall file with the Oklahoma Secretary of State before March 1 a resignation in writing which states that the resignation will not become effective immediately, but rather will become effective on some date certain that is after the General Election but before the convening of the next session of the Legislature, the vacancy shall be filled by a special election which shall be held in that even-numbered year on the same dates as the regular Primary Election, Runoff Primary Election and General Election. The filing period for the special election shall be the regular filing period prescribed in Section 5-110 of this title. The person elected in the General Election of the special election shall take office on the date the resignation of the incumbent becomes effective and shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term.
Added by Laws 1974, c. 153, § 12-106, operative Jan. 1, 1975. Amended by Laws 1979, c. 240, § 21, emerg. eff. June 1, 1979; Laws 1998, c. 357, § 11, eff. Jan. 1, 1999; Laws 2011, c. 196, § 10, eff. Nov. 1, 2011; Laws 2012, c. 3, § 3, emerg. eff. March 19, 2012.