As a Texan and a lover of interesting license plates, it’s impossible for me not to comment on a story coming out of Oklahoma involving the governor’s frustrating attempt to redo the state’s official license plate. Being from the superior state, I’ll do my best to limit the number of unnecessary jokes about either OU or the state itself.
The making of an official plate is always an ambitious endeavor, and no one, not even a public servant with the best intentions, can usually achieve a plate that doesn’t make someone mad.
In the case of Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, he seems to be the one who is upset after an open records request indicated that the Governor seemingly ignored input from focus groups that indicated that they were not OK with the plates.
Why? For one, it’s extremely red:
I was expecting it to be the darker, Sooner Red of OU, but perhaps people who went to a superior school like Oral Roberts University or Ok State wouldn’t love that idea. Instead, it’s just red, which isn’t a color I ever associated with my former neighbor to the north. I think of Oklahoma as a light, pinkish beige.
“Using color and intentional symbology, this design pays tribute to Oklahoma’s culture and history, nodding to iconic landmarks, our original flag, state animals, and more. This design celebrates much of what makes Oklahoma unique, and I am excited to see it out on the road,” said Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell at its launch last year.
The 46 in the star is not a nod to President Joe Biden, but instead to the original state flag, which didn’t have 46 stars. Instead, it just had a white star with the number 46 in it, to recognize the average IQ of… sorry. I said I wouldn’t do this. It’s hard. It’s actually 46 because Oklahoma was the 46th state admitted to the Union when Texas cut off the parts it didn’t want.
As far as official license plates go, it’s better than New York’s new “Excelsior” plate, but lacks the appealing and iconic simplicity of California’s official design. Unlike Ohio, there don’t appear to be any planes flying backwards. This is a replacement for the previously released official plate, which features the state bird: A Scissortail Flycatcher. I really like the blue-on-white plate. It looks good.
There was some negative reaction to the plate, according to the Fox affiliate in Oklahoma City, with one commenter pointing out that the single star over the red background “Looks Soviet.” You can’t make everyone happy, and presumably, this is the result of a focus group of average Oklahomans that was gathered once the bars closed.
Well… according to the Fox affiliate, that’s not quite what happened.
Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell said in his statement unveiling the design, “Using feedback from the public, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department helped select the finalized license plate design.”
But through an Open Records Request, we learned the journey to this design took a detour. It was another design that initially got the green light from Lt. Gov. Pinnell’s office. It was primarily white and featured the Native American statue, the Guardian.
Emails in March 2023 suggest just slight changes to that design, but 3 months later, the team gets word from the Lt. Gov.’s chief of staff that Governor Stitt wants a different plate instead, featuring a red star. The team considered both a white background and a red background, deciding to go with a primarily white plate, with the star in the middle.
To the credit of the reporters here, the request they filed has the receipts. It shows that only after a plate was approved, changed, and then reapproved, did the state’s Tourism and Recreation Department decide to hold a focus group. The results? The original “Guardian” license plate was the most popular, and the red ones were among the least popular.
A reporter confronted the Governor about this, and it doesn’t sound like it went well:
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt gave a defensive and combative response at his recent press availability event when we asked about the process of selecting the state’s new license plates.
“Who told you to ask that?” he asked.
The governor’s office eventually released a statement saying that:
There is no law that says that the results of a focus group dictates (sic) the license plate for the state. If it doesn’t suit your fancy, there are over 100 different other designs to check out. The Governor, Lt. Governor, Department of Tourism and Department of Commerce worked together to decide on a license plate design. Any recommendation from a focus group would aid in informing that decision.
That (sic) correcting the poor grammar of the governor’s office is from Fox 25 and represents a sic burn, if you catch my drift.
Obviously, none of this truly matters. As the Governor points out, there are many alternative options for people wanting to get a license plate in the state. In fact, Oklahoma has some sick plates, and most of them are quite cheap.
Check out this sweet National Weather Center tag:
The Guardian plate looks way better to me than the “Imagine That” tag, but I don’t live in Oklahoma, which means I get neither a vote nor a high chance of acquiring Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Special thanks to Jetta in the Discord for the tip!
Top graphic images: Oklahoma.gov; depositphotos.com
nobody f….ed it up as Ontario’s Blue plates that were impossible to read
I don’t know if it was a factor, but I can see it from a law enforcement perspective – in the real world the new red plates are much more readable than the older plates.
To add to the plate design madness, many of the native tribal governments also issue plates for their registered members (at a significant discount). The plates from my wife’s tribe look much better than any state plates. There’s a bit of a disagreement going on right now about how much the tribes should share with the state – some tribes aren’t sharing plate data with the toll road agency so they can’t bill drivers using automatic plate readers.
And finally, as a Texan who moved to OK for a nicer pace of life (away from the chaotic aggression that is Plano/Allen/Frisco), at least we don’t have to mess with front license plates or smog checks.
Ah, my home state makes the vaunted pages of The Autopian, for exactly the sort of stupid bullshit you’d expect. In a state government already renowned for its supermajority of MAGA dipshits, Stitt is at the top of the heap.
The license plate debacle must’ve been a critical component of his oft-repeated goal of making Oklahoma a “Top-Ten State.” Given that we’re literally ranked 49th in education, the only Top Ten we can expect is in poverty and/or obesity rates.
There are a few bright spots (like Tulsa), but mostly I hate it here.
ETA: We at least have the option to keep our old plates when renewing registration, and although I don’t love the blue scissortail design, I absolutely refuse to get the red plates.