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WASHINGTON - The November election is expected to trigger an unusually robust voter turnout amid deep concern over the economy, the war in Iraq and terrorism.

''This country has not been so emotionally involved in an election since 1968 during the Vietnam War,'' said Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.

''The Bush administration is a lightning rod,'' he said. ''It has galvanized some people on its behalf and mobilized a whole slew of people in hostility to it.''

Over the past four decades, voter turnout at presidential elections has declined by nearly 25 percent.

But election watchers predict the turnout in November could approach 60 percent of eligible citizens voting.

The last comparable spike was in 1992 when Bill Clinton beat President Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush. That year 58 percent of eligible citizens voted - up 5 points from 53 percent in 1988.

When Clinton won a second term in 1996, just 52 percent voted. Turnout rose slightly in 2000 with 54 percent voting.

Andrew Kohut, director of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, said Americans now are seeing sharper differences in candidates and indicating that who is elected matters more than it did four years ago.

''The economy, the war on terrorism and Iraq against the backdrop of the Sept. 11 attacks, has elevated the importance of national government, the president of the United States, prosperity and protection,'' Kohut said.

Sen. George Allen, R-Va., chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, predicts the GOP's conservative base will be out in full force because the presidential election is such a close contest.

Bush's conservative stance on social issues such as gay marriage, stem-cell research and a ban on a medical procedure critics call ''partial-birth'' abortion has energized the GOP faithful, Allen said.

''A lot of family value-type issues are at stake,'' he said.

Republicans are counting on a huge turnout by conservative Christian voters.

''The Bush administration has worked very hard to appeal to its evangelical base,'' said Adam Clymer, political director of the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey.

Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said especially high voter interest in hotly contested House special elections in Kentucky and South Dakota is a harbinger of a more robust turnout in the fall.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said both Republican and Democratic national and state parties have been ''digging in their heels'' for more than a year in pursuit of the middle 5-to-8 percent of undecided voters. Also, they are reaching out to new and lapsed voters.

The Annenberg Survey's July report shows voters are paying extra-close attention this year.

Of all registered voters, 34 percent said they had discussed politics with family or friends at least four days in the past week, up from 15 percent in 2000.

For registered Latinos, the percentage was 31 percent, up from 10 percent in 2000. African Americans were at 28 percent, up from 11 percent in 2000. And for evangelical and born-again white Protestants, it was 32 percent, double the total of that group in the last election.

Ivan Frishberg, of the New Voters Project, a nonpartisan voter mobilization group, predicts young people will turn out in much bigger numbers than older adults.

Frishberg said greater emphasis this year on knocking on doors, making phone calls and running neighbor-to-neighbor precinct programs is expected to disproportionately motivate young people to vote.