BUFFALO, N.Y. — A key demographic for election campaigns in New York are undecided voters, but what about those who have already decided not to participate?

From running for the White House to a few city or city council members, every vote counts; even those who are not cast. If we reach as many people as possible, there will be a lot of different opinions about these blank ballots, but not much positive.

“You can't complain when something happens in our government if you didn't vote for a change,” said Judy Johnson, who spent the days before the election with her friend Becca Leone wondering why anyone vote should decide against it.

“I just think it’s our right and our duty to vote,” Leone said.

Finally, thousands of activists and concerned citizens have spent hours offering their perspective on what the next few years might look like.

“I made the postcards for people who are undecided. We sent them to Pennsylvania, to Wisconsin, and many other places. And we're basically saying, 'Your vote, your vote,'” Johnson said.

Some people are wired to vote, like Kevin Hardwick, who cast his first ballot in the 1970s.

“It was about myself. I ran for school board when I was a senior (just turning 18),” said the Erie County auditor and political science professor at Canisius University. “I was lucky to be elected.”

Hardwick realizes that even the people who didn't vote for him along the way deserve a contribution.

“There are people who are turned off by the major candidates at the presidential level,” he added. “But there are also a lot of state and local candidates whose positions are important too. “You know, for me they're already there. You are in the elections. It will take a few more seconds for more bubbles to fill. You should vote for these jobs because they are important too.”

For voters like Jasmin Attalla, it's more of a struggle. An early voter from the Hudson Valley who has voted Democratic most of her life, but ended up in the third party because of the current administration's handling of Middle East issues and the former president's track record of policy and behavior.

“The more I get involved in politics, the more I learn and the more I think about the future,” she said. “I have a 6-year-old child and I really think about what this country is going to look like in 10, 20, 30 years.”

Attalla says she left some spots on the ticket blank for the same reasons, with no clear alternative.

“The more I realize that we really need to break this binary, the more the majority of Americans don't agree with either party and don't support either party at all,” she said. “But the way the system is built on elections, we have no choice but to choose from them.”

Voters are being strategic about their votes, but many are making it clear that speaking out is a priority.

“Good or bad, at least you are making a difference in our democracy. If you really believe this is a democracy,” Johnson said.

The fact is that we won't know how people not voting will affect these elections until the winners are determined, and we'll look at the data after the fact to see how many people abstained, which could have influenced the outcome in one direction or another.

More people than ever have already voted early, breaking records in the 2024 election cycle. It is expected that there will be a record number of votes in this election. Approximately 81 million people did not vote in 2020, but we still saw record turnout.