Analysis: One persistently interesting story that has emerged since the wrap-up of this fall’s campaign by President Barack Obama is the story of how the Obama campaign’s operations were dictated not by liberal ideology but by a process consumed with data and an attempt to scientifically boost turnout.
Conservatives sneered at this approach prior to the election for its attempt to obviate human free will as a factor. Now that it has worked, Republican consultants are probably combing through the strategy to see how to replicate it on their side. And one particularly interesting area where this data-driven approach appears to have been not only used, but pushed further than anyone had before, can be seen in an article by the New York Times explaining the campaign’s consultation with scientists studying behavioral economics.
Behavioral economics is a relatively new field of economic analysis that blends insights from psychology and neuroscience with econometric equations to model how human beings make their decisions. It has gained special currency on the Left because many liberals see its conclusions as contradicting the presumption by classical economists that every decision is “rational.” That this is a straw man of the economic definition of “rationality” does not appear to phase these would-be critics.
However, despite its currency on the Left, behavioral economics leans neither direction (though many authors, such as Cass Sunstein, have sought to apply its insights to government), as it is focused exclusively on understanding human decision-making processes, and what stimuli are most likely to make people choose particular options. That is where the Obama campaign decided to use it – specifically, to figure out what would motivate people to vote.
From the New York Times article:
In a now classic experiment, a pair of Stanford
psychologists asked people if they would display in a home window a
small card proclaiming the importance of safe driving. Those who agreed
to this small favor were later much more likely to agree to a much
larger favor, to post a large “Drive Carefully” sign on their lawn —
“something no one would agree to do otherwise,” Dr. Cialdini said.
Obama volunteers also asked people if they had a plan to vote and if
not, to make one, specifying a time, according to Stephen Shaw, a
retired cancer researcher who knocked on doors in Nevada and Virginia in
the days before the election. “One thing we’d say is that we know that
when people have a plan, voting goes more smoothly,” he said.[…]
Another technique some volunteers said they used was to inform
supporters that others in their neighborhood were planning to vote.
Again, recent research shows that this kind of message is much more
likely to prompt people to vote than traditional campaign literature
that emphasizes the negative — that many neighbors did not vote and thus
lost an opportunity to make a difference.
Less than a week after a suburbanite petitioned the White House to allow Louisiana to secede from the U.S., petitions from seven states have collected enough signatures to trigger a promised review.
An Oklahoma farm leader would like the Legislature to consider a constitutional protection amendment for farmers, following what voters in North Dakota did in this month’s elections when they approved a right to farm amendment in their state constitution.
“We have to educate people about the practices we employ,” he explained. “We’re being told that by 2050, we’ll see a 34 percent increase in the world’s population and there’ll be a worldwide demand for twice as much agricultural production.”
OKLAHOMA CITY — Republicans gained four Senate seats in Tuesday’s election. In the Oklahoma State Senate, that is, where Republicans now have a 36-12 advantage. And, for the cycle, the Grand Old Party gained two seats in the state House, reaching an unprecedented 72-29 edge.
In Tulsa, Jim Bridenstine held the First Congressional District for Republicans, while incumbents James Lankford, Tom Cole and Frank Lucas won comfortably. Now, all five U.S. representatives, both U.S. Senators, both Houses of the Legislature and every statewide elected official is a registered Republican for the first time in Oklahoma history. 
The state Democratic Party, dominant political force for the first century in Oklahoma history, has never been weaker. Party faithful took comfort in scattered good news, largely incumbents who weathered general election challenges, including some at the county level.
The justices – Yvonne Kauger, Doug Combs, James Edmondson and Noma Gurich – gained comfortable “YES” margins in the retention votes. Ranging from a low of 65.6 percent (Kauger) to a high of 66.9 percent (Edmondson). 
State Question 758 limits the annual increase in property taxes to a maximum of 3 percent, rather than the 5 percent annual increase cap now in place. The proposal crafted by state Rep. David Dank, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma City, was the most popular ballot proposition of the year, getting 856,711 votes (67.7 percent).
A new Holiday treat is described as a creamy cinnamon ice cream with flavorful gingerbread pieces, festive red and green sprinkles and miniature marshmallows surrounded by vanilla icing.