From all the hoopla about the recall elections in Wisconsin, one would think really large numbers of people would turn out to keep or replace a senator. Think again. Wisconsin voters were even more apathetic than they were last November, when the overall turnout was 50.9 percent.
"About 44% of voting-age adults in the six districts combined went to the polls Tuesday, approaching the 49% combined turnout rate in those districts in last year’s race for governor." - "Was Tuesday's big recall turnout too big for Democrats?", Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2011-08-10.
I glanced at some of the results posted by Wisconsin's General Accountability Board. I remember in one race that the winner had a two-to-one lead. Generalizing from the above turnout, the "winner" had the support of one-third of the eligible voters. If precedent is a guide, the winner is probably gloating over a "landslide" and thinks he or she has a mandate from "the people". Unfortunately, few political winners have the humility to admit that they came in second to a de facto "none of the above".
