Why do registered voters end up not voting?

[Yelnoc]

There can be all sorts of reasons! One perhaps overlooked one is unstable residence situations. For example, in 2022 I was a Georgia resident. But in the summer some things happened and I ended up crashing in another state for several months. I could not vote in that other state, of course, since I was not a permanent resident.

Should I have requested an absentee ballot in order to vote for Warnock? Looking back, probably. But, Georgia's voter laws are strict enough that I was worried about doing it wrong and getting investigated for voting illegally or whatever. So I didn't bother.

I imagine a lot of people who are temporarily residing outside of their state, or perhaps who moved close to the election and haven't yet updated their addresses, or are students, or are temporary homeless, or... you get the point. If you could vote anywhere or if getting a mail-in ballot was more straight forward for someone with wavering residences, then you would probably see voter participation increase. But no one wants to be accused of voter fraud. Easier to not bother.