There was a time the Democratic Party was the predominate block of voters in Oklahoma.
The demographics even 25 years ago had 1.112 million Democrats registered as opposed to only 624,000 Republicans.
Today that statewide trend is tipping the other way.
According to numbers from the Oklahoma Election Board, there are 1,008,569 registered Republicans and 738,256 registered Democrats.
In 1996, Okmulgee County had 17,088 Democrats compared with 3,535 Republicans and only 738 Independents.
That field has leveled out this year with 8,851 Democrats and 8,897 Republicans. There are 2,830 voters registered as Independent party members.
Even though for over 100 years the Democratic Party held the edge in Oklahoma, only seven Democratic candidates were able to carry the state vote. Four of those sieven wins went to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The last time Democrats held sway was in 1964 when 519,834 votes were cast for Lyndon Johnson compared to 412,665 for Barry Goldwater.
Prior to that, only Harry Truman, Roosevelt and John W. Davis were able to get the most statewide votes in the past 100 years. Oklahoma kept Roosevelt in office from 1932 through the 1944 elections.
Prior to 1920, the state voted solidly Democratic starting with William Jennings Bryan in 1908 then twice for Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916.

 

Nearly 18 percent of all registered voters in Okmulgee County have already cast their ballots for the Nov. 3 general election.
From Thursday through Saturday, 3,382 ballots were turned in with most of those being in-person voting.
There were 2,143 voters making their decision known personally at the Okmulgee court house while 1,240 voters mailed in their ballots. The mail-in absentee ballots can still be received at the county election board no later than 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The in-person voting set a new record for Okmulgee County. In the 2016 election, only 1,400 people came to the court house to vote.
By party those voting either by mail Saturday or in-person include: 1,490 republicans, 1,602 democrats, 21 libertarians and 270 independents.
Okmulgee County has 9,149 registered democrats, 7,438 republicans 2,632 independent party members and 74 libertarians.
Statewide republican voters outnumber registered democrats according to state election board numbers. There are 1,008,569 registered republicans, 738,256 democrats, 11,171 libertarians and 332,111 independents.
By 5 p.m. Saturday, 429,073 mail-in or in-person votes had been cast for the general election in all 77 Oklahoma counties.
The polls in each precinct open at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning and will close at 7 p.m.

There were plenty of strange looking monsters, critters and varmits along with some creative styles running up and down Main Street Friday. The town was buzzing with costumes as the annual Henryetta downtown Halloween celebration was held. Several thousand people roamed the streets getting candy and assorted goodies from the local merchants.

Henryetta Chamber of Commerce members officially welcomed The Flower Shop Plus to the business community Wednesday morning. The ribbon cutting at the medical marijuana dispensary on East Main was performed by owners Blake Frost and Kimberly Reeves Wilmoth.