, Columnist
Fear Is Powerful. But It Won't Drive Voter Turnout.
This election could demonstrate that charisma, not risk, motivates people to vote.
Probably still not voting.
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It’s hard to imagine a presidential election with higher stakes than the current one: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump offer radically different ideas about the country’s direction, and many people believe that one or the other would be catastrophic. Yet new evidence raises the possibility that we will see an unusually low voter turnout.
To explain that puzzle, here’s a quiz. Since 1972, when do you think the U.S. had the biggest turnout in a presidential election, measured by the percentage of the voting-age population that actually voted?