Fifty percent would be a higher turnout than the U.S. had in the 1996 presidential election, and around the same number who voted in the last four out of five White House races.

In the 1988 presidential contest, for instance, 50.3 percent of eligible American voters went to the polls. Four years later 55.1 percent showed up. In 1996, turnout dropped to 49 percent. In 2000, it was 51.3 percent.

Turnout in non-Sunni areas is expected to top 80 percent - meaning that a third more Iraqis intend to vote in their election that Americans did last November - when 60 percent voted in what pundits ballyhooed as a record.

Editor's note: