Croatians voted in favor of European Union membership in a referendum on Sunday, although turnout was officially placed at 43 percent.  Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic stated that this was a result of an inaccurate and out-of-date voter registry.  If the voter roll was accurate, Pusic claimed, then actual turnout may have been closer to 60 percent of voters.

I’ve previously discussed how I believe that most plebiscites should require some turnout threshold in order for a measure to pass.  Thresholds can prevent a small, driven group of individuals from easily passing beneficial laws assuming the rest of the population isn’t as equally mobilized to stop them.  EU membership is an important issue, so a turnout requirement would make sense here.  When nobody even knows how many voters exist, however, such a rule is impossible.