THE MAGIC NUMBER.

To follow up on what Holly Yeager and Tom Schaller have already noted, I find that anecdotal evidence like this certainly strengthens the argument that the drawn-out primary has been good for Democratic turnout:

“Let’s just say it’s very busy,” said Joseph Passarella, the director of voter services for Montgomery County, sounding a little harried. “Our phones have been ringing since 6:15 this morning and have been ringing nonstop. We’ve never had a primary election this busy.” ...

“We’re predicting at least double the turnout of 2004,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve been major players in the presidential primary since 1976.” ...

Stacy Sterner, the chief clerk in Lehigh County, compared the turnout so far to that of a general election. On election day in November of 2004, Pennsylvania saw a 73 percent turnout.

“It’s a crazy day,” Ms. Sterner said. “If I didn’t know better, I would think it was November.”

In November 2004, nearly 5.8 million people voted in Pennsylvania, 2,938,095 of them for John Kerry. If today's turnout really does resemble that of 2004, then the benchmark to look for will be how close today's total comes to Kerry's vote total. If it is close, that would be rather amazing considering turnout for the 2004 primary was only 26 percent.

--Mori Dinauer