AP. Here's an interesting metric. Actually, I think elections, even if there is a high voter turn-out, can undermine legitimacy. One reason (out of many): unreasonable expectations.
But a low voter turnout, especially in Sunni strongholds now plagued by insurgency, would be worse than having no election at all, according to Peter Khalil, a national security research fellow at the Saban Center of the Brookings Institution. "You need at least 70 percent of the voters to take place to accord legitimacy to the next government. If not, it will fuel the insurgency and give it a new political dimension," said Khalil, who served for nearly a year with the U.S.-led occupation authorities in Iraq.
[John Robb's Weblog]
It's a little silly to be talking about undermining the legitimacy of something that has no legitimacy to begin with. The quote aout needing 70% of the voters is pretty funny, though. That's significanty more than the turnout for any US election I've voted in.
12:55:34 PM 
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