Guiding the vote: The Daily Oklahoman and voting on moral issues

Abstract

This note replicates and combines two threads of research to better understand the influence of the Daily Oklahoman on voting outcomes of state questions involving moral issues. Multiple regression models are developed with the vote on four ballot proposals as the dependent variable, with the county-level circulation rate of the Daily Oklahoman, religious affiliation, socioeconomic status, and 2002 county vote for Governor Henry as independent variables. The analysis reveals that the Daily Oklahoman circulation rate was marginally related to the voting outcomes on the state questions, while several of the other independent variables showed stronger relationships.