Inside Report (8)

The experts could be wrong. But it looks as if US voter turnout on Nov. 4 will drop for the fifth election in a row. Curtis Gans, director of the bipartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, says the decline could be 2 percent, or even more. That means about 82 million eligible Americans will vote, while 78 million will stay at home. If the drop is much more than 2 percent -- which could happen -- this would be the worst year for voter turnout since 1924.

Conventional wisdom is that a low turnout will help Ronald Reagan.m