As a native Oklahoman, I found this research quite interesting. I have
gathered some information for you from several online sites. Due to
copyright restrictions, I can post only brief excerpts from each
source; for a better understanding of the material, I suggest that you
explore each site in depth.
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"More Oklahomans consider themselves Republicans than Democrats,
according to a poll that reflects the state's current voting patterns,
if not voter registration. The same poll also shows that only a third
of Oklahomans want Republicans to control the White House and
Congress, while another third doesn't want either party to control
both branches of government.
The poll was conducted for The Oklahoman by the University of Oklahoma
political science department to gauge party identification and loyalty
in the state. Not suprisingly, it showed that party registration in
the state still hasn't caught up with voting behavior. Republicans
have dominated the last three election cycles in Oklahoma, despite
Democrats' considerable edge in registration. However, an increasing
number of Oklahomans consider themselves independents, and only 22
percent of those polled said they would vote a straightparty ticket
Nov. 7.
The latest in the series of election-year polls for The Oklahoman was
conducted Oct. 9-12 [2000]; pollsters asked the questions of 400
randomly selected Oklahomans. The survey has a 5 percent margin of
error. Asked whether they think of themselves as Republicans,
Democrats or something else, 43 percent said Republican and 41 percent
said Democrat; the other 16 percent declined to identify with either
party.
...Gordon Melson, executive director of the Oklahoma Democratic Party,
said he also considered the voter identification numbers as a
reflection of national sentiment. 'When you get down to the local
level, they vote for more Democrats,' Melson said. "Our Legislature is
predominately Democrat" and is likely to stay that way after the Nov.
7 elections, he said."
University of Oklahoma
http://www.ou.edu/cas/psc/OUPOLL_web/republicanstory.pdf
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"From 1991 until January of this year [2001] - just 10 years - the
make-up of the Oklahoma voter population has changed radically.
Democrat registrations statewide have actually dropped by 5%. And
while Republican registrations have increased by almost 23%,
Independent and Third Party registrations have shot up over 319%. In
actual numbers, over those 10 short years, 5,596 more new Independents
signed up than did new Republicans (154,676 to 149,080). There are now
over 203,000 voters in Oklahoma who do not attach themselves to
either of the major parties."
OKvote
http://www222.pair.com/okvote/samples.htm
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Oddly, we Oklahomans seem to prefer to vote Republican for federal
offices, while choosing Democrats for local offices. Of Oklahoma's
five US Senators and Congressmen, only one is a Democrat. However, the
Democrats control the Oklahoma state legislature, and we've recently
elected a Democratic Governor, Brad Henry. Here are some statistics
that may be of interest:
Congressional Representatives
Number Of Representatives : 5
Representative Party Breakdown : 1 Democrat 4 Republican
Senate Party Breakdown : 2 Republican
Oklahoma Legislature (State Legislature)
State Legislature Website:
http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/house/ohorpage.htm
2003 Legislative Calender : February 3 - May 30
Legislative Information Phone : (405) 521-2711 (house)
Senate (Higher Branch)
Members : 48
Term Length : 4 years
Term Limit : 12 years combined total for both houses
Party Breakdown : 28 Democrat 20 Republican
Gender Breakdown : 6 Female 41 Male
House of Representatives (Lower Branch)
Members : 101
Term Length : 2 years
Term Limit : 12 years combined total for both houses
Party Breakdown : 53 Democrat 48 Republican
Gender Breakdown : 10 Female 76 Male
Project Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org/mystate_government_statistics.php?PHPSESSID=2bcea4eb480209a746d70f8ad5caf84f&state_name=Oklahoma&state_code=OK&go2.x=11&go2.y=9
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Useful statistics on party registration and the results of several
recent elections may be found on this site:
Oklahoma State Election Board
http://www.state.ok.us/~elections/
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Here's an interesting finding: Oklahomans are more concerned about a
candidate's character than about his or her stand on the issues or
party affiliation.
"The Oklahoman/OU POLL found that 94 percent of Oklahomans believe
character is either very important or somewhat important in their
decision, and about the same amount think it's important for the next
president to set high moral standards.
That is slightly more than the number of Oklahomans who believe the
candidates' stands on the issues are important and far more than those
who put importance in a candidate's party.
Gary Copeland, the head of the Carl Albert Congressional Center at the
University of Oklahoma, said the results are 'consistent with what we
know nationally. Character is the most important factor' in the
presidential race. 'It's more important than issues. It's more
important than party.'
Copeland oversees the poll, which involved 401 Oklahomans and was
conducted Oct. 16-19 [2000]. It has a margin of error of 5 percentage
points... The poll also found that 79 percent consider character very
important in presidential candidates. Fifteen percent say it is
somewhat important.
Issues were very important to 72 percent of those polled and somewhat
important to 19 percent. The candidate's party was very important to
only 20 percent and somewhat important to 17 percent, poll results
showed."
The Ardmoreite
http://www.ardmoreite.com/stories/110500/new_oklahomans.shtml
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Regarding issues that concern Oklahomans, here are the results of a
small survey:
What do you think is the most important issue concerning Oklahomans?
Total 30 votes cast.
Reducing or Eliminating the State Income Tax 23.33%
Providing Affordable Health Insurance 20.00%
Increasing Jobs and Securing Better Wages 20.00%
Improving Education 20.00%
Fighting for Senior Citizens 10.00%
Supporting our Farmers and Agriculture 6.67%
Kalyn Free for Congress
http://www.freeforcongress.com/poll/surveyresult.asp?Id=31
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Here you'll find details of a 1995 survey concerning Oklahomans' views
on issues of criminal justice:
Crime and Corrections: The Views of the People of Oklahoma
http://www.doc.state.ok.us/DOCS/OCJRC/OCJRC95/950725i.htm
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The University of Oklahoma's Public Opinion Learning Laboratory has
conducted polls on numerous issues. Here you can access articles
discussing the results of several polls:
University of Oklahoma: Public Opinion Learning Laboratory
http://www.ou.edu/cas/psc/OUPOLL_web/projectarchivepage.html
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Search terms used:
"oklahoma voters"
"voters in oklahoma"
"important issues"
"most important"
"importance of issues"
"issues of importance"
"important to oklahoma voters"
"important to oklahomans"
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If anything above is unclear or incomplete, or if a link does not
function, please request clarification before rating my answer; I'll
gladly offer further assistance as needed.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
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