Happy European Parliamentary Election Day!

Yes, today is the start of voting in the world's second largest democracy (almost 500,000,000 people in the EU these days). Expect turnout to be terrible in this election. It seems not even proportional representation can compel people to vote in an election they don't care about. The United Kingdom is up first today. Apparently, the thought is that people will vote against the party supported by the increasingly unpopular Gordon Brown in a possible preview of the looming parliamentary election in the UK. It may be deeply unpopular and mostly pointless but it is still fascinating to watch an exercise in democracy on this grand a scale. It isn't quite India but it is still an overwhelming concept to think about.