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A protest vote (also known as blank vote or white vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the caster's unhappiness with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system. It can thus be said "conjectural", as the voter would accept other candidates in the same system, or "structural", if the voter is opposed to the whole system — usually representative democracy, but it may also signify opposition to a two-party system where "third options" are always rejected. In this latter case, protest vote may take the form of a valid vote, but instead of voting for the mainstream candidates, it is a vote in favor of a minority or fringe candidate, either from the far-left, far-right or self-presenting as a candidate foreign to the political system

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Halfway through this year's primary season, voters are showing little interest in picking candidates for the Nov. 7 elections that will determine control of Congress and elect more than one-third of the nation's governors. Twenty-five states held primaries through June 27. Sixteen of the 22 states that have certified figures or provided estimates to USA TODAY recorded voter turnout lower than 2002, the last national election that wasn't in a presidential year.

"The higher the turnout, the more representative an election is," says Rhodes Cook, publisher of a non-partisan political newsletter. "The lower the turnout, the more the election is likely to reflect a wing of a party or an ideology."

Turnout hasn't cracked 40% in any state. In most, primary participation was in the 20%-30% range. Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia and West Virginia posted their lowest primary turnouts in at least eight years.

So far, the year's rock-bottom has come in Virginia, which did not have a 2002 primary. The June 13 Democratic Senate primary drew national attention and was open to all Virginians, regardless of their party. Fewer than 4% of more than 4.5 million eligible voters showed up to nominate former Navy secretary Jim Webb to face Sen. George Allen in November.

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Could the tea party's great triumphs mark the biggest Republican loss this election cycle? Throughout the primary campaign season, the movement's tussles with the GOP have resulted in the rise of Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, and Joe Miller—all tea party-backed candidates who upset the establishment Republican favorites in their respective Senate GOP primaries. And despite this internal squabble, the GOP seemed to be increasing its chances of taking over the Senate, as all had a good shot at winning in the general election. That was until tea partier Christine O'Donnell suddenly surged in the Delaware Republican primary against Rep. Mike Castle.

Ultimately, though, the biggest benefactor of an O'Donnell victory could be the Democratic Party, as she has a significantly weaker shot against the likely Democratic contender, lawyer and county executive Chris Coons. According to PPP, Coons, the likely Democratic contender, "would start out with a large advantage over O'Donnell in a general election match up, and is polling closer to Castle than he was when PPP polled Delaware last month." If the GOP loses Delaware, it could completely blow its chance at getting enough seats for a Senate majority.

Why might the GOP be doomed? Though tea party candidates are notorious for embracing extreme positions, O'Donnell might just be the queen of the lunatic fringe. "Christine O'Donnell makes Sharron Angle look like Margaret Thatcher," tweeted Jim Geraghty from the National Review, a conservative standard-bearer. Here's Daily Intel's tour of O'Donnell's greatest hits:

--She believes that masturbating or looking at pornography is tantamount to adultery.

--She said of Castle's campaign: "They’re following me. They follow me home at night. I make sure that I come back to the townhouse and then we have our team come out and check all the bushes and check all the cars to make sure that...They’re hiding in the bushes when I’m at candidate forums."

--She claimed that when she ran against Joe Biden in 2008, she won two of Delaware's three counties. In reality, she hadn't won any. When this discrepancy was pointed out by a radio host, O'Donnell claimed that she had actually tied Biden in one of them. Still not true.

--Though she had previously claimed to have graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University, O'Donnell only received her degree 10 days ago. [MoJo: She also falsely implied that she was taking Master's classes at Princeton.

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