And they do come. This year's Republican primaries have seen phenomenal voter turnout. Voter turnout was way up in South Carolina, too. Because this time, people believe there's something to vote for. That's not common.
Few races are competitive.
Incumbents win more than 98 percent of the time. But in the Republican primaries, people see a chance for their vote to count. Neither Bush nor McCain is an incumbent. And both candidates are talking about reform. A friend from Arkansas told me that in 1992 he waited in line for over an hour to cast a vote for term limits.