After the Oklahoma Democratic Party announced last year that registered Independents would be allowed to vote in this year’s Democratic presidential primary, many observers wondered how big a role those voters would play in the outcome.

The answer? Not big enough to swing the race.

An analysis performed this week by Oklahoma City-based polling firm SoonerPoll shows 34,436 registered Independents voted in the Democratic primary — too few to make up the 34,716-vote margin between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The small Independent turnout also appears to indicate that Sanders’ victory was not fueled by a large groundswell of young and Independent voters as some had speculated, said Bill Shapard, founder of SoonerPoll.

In Oklahoma, Sanders’ victory appears instead to have been driven by older registered Democrats, according to the analysis. That the contest isn’t living up to preconceptions isn’t a surprise to Shapard, who authored the analysis.

“This was a crazy election,” Shapard said. “There’s just no doubt about it.”

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The Oklahoma Democratic Party decided Saturday to allow Independents to vote in its primaries. It’s the smartest move for a state political party I’ve witnessed in a while.

Independents are growing in numbers in Oklahoma. Allowed to participate with the Democratic Party in June and August primaries and runoffs, the GOP could find it difficult to bring this key voter block back by November.

Republicans would be foolish to take their Obama-era years of unchallenged electoral invincibility for granted.

A Republican president in the White House in 2016 (yes, it’s a remote possibility), and suddenly the GOP is to blame for society’s ills two years later.

While Oklahoma will certainly be a blood red state for many years, Democrats could start winning a few key races. It likely won’t happen in a presidential year when national liberals continue to drive a wedge between the Democratic Party and most Oklahomans, but state issues could take center stage again in 2018.

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Oklahoma’s independent voters will be able to cast ballots in Democratic primary elections later this year.

Oklahoma Democratic Party delegates voted 314-137 during a Saturday meeting at Oklahoma City Community College to open primaries up to the 261,000 voters in Oklahoma who are registered as independents.

Party spokeswoman Sarah Baker said the change will take effect in September.

In a statement, State Democratic Party Chairman Mark Hammons said the change was historic.

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Their reasons may vary, but one thing is certain: Young adults are increasingly uninterested in voting.

The number of registered voters in Oklahoma ages 18 to 24 has declined nearly 40 percent in the past decade, according to a Tulsa World analysis of voter registration records.

In 2005, there were some 224,000 registered voters between the ages of 18 and 24 years old, the analysis shows. By January 2015, there were about 138,000 Oklahoma registered voters in that age range.

So where did all the voters go?

Read the complete story on tulsaworld.com