Michael Moore is disconsolate over the election results. I'm not above a little schadenfreude, but we've got more important things on our national agenda than watching the big man blubber. I only note this in order to, er, note this:

Only about 20% of the American people showed up three weeks ago to vote for a Republican. That's it. Just 20%. And about 19% voted for a Democrat (an amazing number considering how few fights the Democrats put up around the country).

And 61% said, "To hell with all of them!" and refused to show up and vote.

I am not surprised this happened. My greatest fear after the 2000 election was that the majority of Americans would just give up and say, "Why bother?"

Meanwhile, back in reality, here are the last few mid-term voter turnout numbers (as a percentage of the voting-age population):

1998: 36.4% 1994: 38.78% 1990: 36.52% 1986: 36.40% 1982: 39.79% 1978: 37.21% 1974: 38.23% 1970: 46.60% 1966: 48.39% 1962: 47.27%

(Source: Federal Election Commission, details here and here.)

So in fact, the voter turnout of 39% in 2002 was typical for a mid-term election, maybe even a little on the high side.

(BTW: Why the big decrease from 1970 to 1974? Whenever you see an anomaly in the US population statistics in the latter half of the 20th century, and ask yourself "why?", nine times out of ten the answer is, "the Baby Boom" -- in this case, the entry of the Boomers into the pool of voting-age citizens. The effect is magnified here by the 1971 ratification of the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.)