there wasn't a presidential election - is that why fewer people voted?
True, last November was not a presidential election. However, it was just 5 years after 9/11, which is why I say the people who either didn't bother to vote, or voted 3rd party, or voted for other things but not for congress took their eye off the ball. What the Dems are doing now was 100% predictable, so people who knowingly threw away their votes due to petulance have no room to complain now.