For us here at Involve, the crucial baseline for the US election was what would happen to the voter turnout rate. Were the predictions beforehand all talk? what about the Bradley effect? Well, the current indications are that 2008 could mark the highest voter turnout rate since 1968 - with cautious predictions putting the turnout around 133 million, which would mark a 62.5% turnout rate.

While this should become clear in the coming days, you can keep up to date with this at The Princeton Election Consortium's site (if you are so inclined).

To bring this around to the UK, and for all of us interested in involving people in the decisions that effect their everyday lives,what will be the outcome of the next UK General Election in terms of voter turnout?

2001 saw a 59.38% turnout and 2005 was better with 61.36%. But what are the odds that next time we get back to the 70%-plus postwar norm?

This all assumes that involvement in formal political processes is the most relevant indicator of the interest and capacity to get involved in our communities. As that is not the case, have a look at some of the recently added and updated resources in the Participation library - Active Partners - Benchmarking Community Participation in Regeneration and Beyond the Ballot: 57 Democratic Innovations from Around the World are certainly both worth exploring.