Bob McCarty Writes

As a native Oklahoman, I was very interested to hear Rush Limbaugh talk today about the likely reasons behind John McCain’s landslide victory in Oklahoma and wonder whether Barack Obama would have won the same number of electoral votes had the election laws of the Sooner State been applied nationwide.

In case you’re not aware, McCain carried all 77 counties in Oklahoma — a largely-Democratic state — and garnered 65.6 percent of the vote in the presidential election Nov. 4.

During the first few minutes of the third hour of The Rush Limbaugh Show, conservative radio talk show host shared some key facts about the Sooner State election results with his audience of 20 million listeners.  I offer a rough summary of those facts below:

• People in Oklahoma had a shorter time frame within which they could register to vote;

• People in Oklahoma had to show a photo identification card or the last four digits of their social security number in order to register to vote; and

• People in Oklahoma had a shorter time frame within which they could cast early votes.

With the above election factors in place, Limbaugh wondered out loud about how election results might have turned out vastly different in other states had they replaced their loosey-goosey, overly-accommodating election rules with a more-tightly-controlled election process like that of Oklahoma.

Good points all, Rush.

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Update: Here’s the link to the CBS News article upon which Limbaugh based much of his observation.