Oklahoma legalization measure suffers crushing defeat

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%.