Tajbakhsh discusses and compares the voter turnout, or lack thereof, in the recent New York City and Tehran elections. “New Yorkers voted in closed primaries for a range of offices with the mayor’s office at the top of the ballot; Tehranis voted for president and other national offices as well as 21 at-large city council seats (Iranian Mayors are appointed). In spite of the fact that almost every commentator and pundit in both countries insisted these were very consequential elections, less than a quarter of the eligible voting population turned out to vote for both of them.”