re: An election at the end of 2001? Which one was that?
I don't understand why you bother with these niggling arguements while evading the meaning of the post. It is well established that voter turnouts then, before and subsequently were [and likely will be] far lower than 50% of registered voters. And that's just the folks who actually bothered to register.
On the other hand [no stats just a personal estimate, sorry], during 9/11 and the subsequent Bush sabre-rattling period, more than 50% of cars on the freeway sported flags.
You do the math.
And for the record: these elections. The ones concerning several of the various LA area school districts were very much in the local news.