How many times did you hear that voters believed this was the most important presidential election of their lifetime, and therefore that turnout would be through the roof? Voters waiting in line for hours. Huge numbers of early and absentee ballots. Unprecedented get-out-the-vote operations. Well, as I add the totals on CNN’s election website now, it looks like about 117.6 million votes have been counted so far — which is less, I believe, than in 2004. There are still votes left to be tallied, but I think it’s safe to say that there wasn’t a historic leap in turnout this time around. After all the hype, what was the reason for that? (H/T Seth Liebsohn)