> > > [...] I like rambling. Anyone else care to join me?
> > >
> According to news reports, Canada held an election and (almost) nobody showed up to vote.
> We (US) should be so lucky.
> Howard

Heh. So then, what's the average turnout for American elections? Just curious.

On Monday, when Canada had its national election, only 62.9% of the eligible voters showed up at the polls. That's the lowest voter turnout in 104 years. We can't even blame bad Novemeber weather for this result, because two previous November elections had a 75% turnout.

The National Post suggested that vague issues, and the unusually ungainly name-calling which some of the party leaders engaged in, probably played a significant factor in Canadian voter apathy: "Political science research, notably that conducted by Harvard University's 'vanishing voter' project, has demonstrated that although negative ads are effective in the short-term by drawing crude distinctions among candidates, they eventually leave a stain on the entire electoral process, driving voters to stay away from the polls entirely." Ouch.

Wolfspirit