I am hearing from people in Iran that the turnout has been miniscule in the circus aka election. It is a mistake to think of these rituals as having anything to do with public opinion, since both the “candidates” and the votes are emanations of the wishes of the Supreme Leader and his acolytes.

Insofar as one can speak of the Iranian people’s desires in the circus outcome, the only meaningful yardstick is turnout. If nobody votes, it’s shows their disgust with the regime and the whole phony process. If the reports of very few voters are true, you can expect the regime to keep the polls open beyond the scheduled closing time “because of the large number of voters” and then trot out prestuffed ballot boxes to certify the predetermined results. You may recall that in the last presidential election one of the leading mullahs was so offended by the obvious fraud, that he publicly asked how a candidate could be a million votes ahead, only to fall a million votes behind within an hour.