Park Bench posted in this thread:

"Second, you keep quoting the voting percentage for the recovery plan vote as 70% of the city voted for the recovery plan.  Truth be known, it was 70% of THOSE WHO VOTED in that election, which if I'm not mistaken, was only about 30-40% of the whole population.  That means of the 75,000 people who live here, only about 22,000 to 40,000 people voted. 70% of let's say, 30,000 votes only works out to about 21,000 people out of the 75,000 people who live here actually said they wanted the recovery plan as written.  Hardly an overwhelming victory."

You bolded the key phrase in your own post, but I'll repeat it here.  THOSE WHO VOTED. 

When you fail to get off the couch and come vote, your criticizms of the government sort of lose credibility.  You like the recovery plan?  Come out and vote for it.  Despise it with every shred of your being?  Vote against it.  Don't bother me now, Days of our Lives is on?  Don't bitch if you don't get what you want out of the deal, then.  Get an absentee ballot if you can't make it to the polls, but if you consciously fail to exercise your right to vote, then hush.

About 65% of the residents of Scranton are eligible to vote.  Are they all registered?  Probably not.  Do all the registered voters come out to vote?  Everyone knows that the answer to that is also no.  So when 70% of the ones who actually make an effort to cast a ballot, cast it in the affirmative (or negative, or however), then yes, it does seem kind of overwhelming. 

Nice job downplaying the lack of voter turnout, though.