A new political party hopes to gather enough signatures to appear on this year’s ballot.

The Sooner State Party must gather 35,000 signatures by Feb. 20 to become a recognized political party, said co-founder C.J. Webber-Neal.

Webber-Neal said supporters have gathered 22,000 signatures.

The Sooner State Party formed in July and has about 45 members, he said. If approved, the party plans to open its primaries to independent voters for every election, he said.

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Currently, independent voters are barred from participating in all state’s partisan primary elections after the State Election Board last year determined no party submitted the proper paperwork to open its primaries.

State law presumes partisan primaries are closed to unaffiliated voters unless a political party notifies the state Election Board within a specific time frame that it will open them to independents, who are not a recognized political party.

Democrats had previously opened primaries to independents, while Republicans and Libertarians had not.

Webber-Neal said when news broke that independents couldn’t vote in any partisan primary, the group received so much website traffic that it crashed their site.

Webber-Neal said the Sooner State Party is more aligned with independents than Democrats, Republicans or Libertarians.

Webber-Neal said the Sooner State Party supports tribal sovereignty and abortion rights.

It also supports the Second Amendment and responsible gun ownership, he said.

The “party is not trying to go to the extreme and putting a bunch of bans on weapons, because that is an infringement,” Webber-Neal said. “But we do believe in responsibility. We do believe that if you take the responsibility to purchase a firearm, you should also take the responsibility to be able to know how to use that firearm.”

The party does support some of the state’s recent tax cuts, but believes reform is needed, he said.

The group also supports increasing the minimum wage to make it livable, he said.

The party does not yet have an official position on LGBTQ+ rights, but has formed an affiliated caucus to create one.

Generally speaking, the Sooner State Party does support LGBTQ+ rights, he said.

The Libertarian Party was the last to gain access to the ballot in 2016 and has retained that access, said Misha Mohr, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Election Board.

“There have been a number of groups that have attempted to get on the ballot over the years,” she said.

Oklahoma law allows the formation of new political parties if supporters can collect signatures from at least 3 percent of the registered voters who cast ballots during the previous gubernatorial election.

In order to continue to exist, a political party then must have a candidate receive at least 2.5 percent of total votes for a statewide elected office in one of the two preceding general elections, according to state law.