60% Turnout in Iraq

In an earlier posting, I speculated that the expected marginal benefits of voting in Iraq might very well be outweighed by the expected marginal costs, given the threats of violence. Privately, I was estimating more violence than was observed, and I did not expect this high turnout.

It looks as if the voter turnout in the Kurdish and Shia regions was very high, but was fairly low in Sunni regions. Overall, the turnout was likely over 60%. I'm impressed (and just a bit more hopeful, now).
I clearly underestimated the expected marginal benefits and/or overestimated the expected marginal costs of voting in the minds of many voters.