The choice of the can't-be-bothered

Non-voters support Trump over Biden three to one.

Bad news: a new poll shows Trump with a commanding lead over Biden.

Good news: it’s among people who aren’t planning to vote at all.

Donald Trump's argument that the 2020 election was rigged has reinforced the views of Americans who are already disenchanted about politics, one factor in their inclination not to cast a vote next year − that is, a vote they would probably cast for him.

An exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll of unlikely voters − those who are eligible to vote but say they probably won't − give Trump a lopsided edge over President Joe Biden among Americans who are deeply skeptical of politics and government.

Registered voters who say they aren't likely to go to the polls back Trump over Biden by nearly 20 percentage points, 32%-13%, with 27% supporting a third-party or other candidate. Citizens who are eligible to vote but haven't registered also favor Trump by close to 2-1, 28%-15%; 27% prefer another candidate.

If they participated in the election, Trump's advantage among them is so wide that they could shift the political landscape to his advantage. His standing among unlikely voters is much stronger than in surveys of registered or likely voters, which generally show a presidential race that is effectively tied. The latest realclearpolitics.com average of national polls gives Biden a 1-point edge.

As David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler found out the hard way, Trump’s own rhetoric about rigged elections and stolen and/or planted ballots and reverse vampires led many of his own supporters to stay home instead of wasting their time at the polling booth. And it looks like history may be repeating itself:

"It's just a game; it's not even serious," said Phillip Benjamin, 40, an engineer from Atlanta who was among those called in the poll. The last time he cast a ballot was for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, but he said that if he voted in 2024 it would be for Trump, a Republican. Benjamin, a registered voter who leans conservative, agrees with Trump's unsubstantiated complaints that there were serious problems with the integrity of the election in 2020.

That makes him less likely to bother voting next time, he said. "If they can push an election the way they pushed that last one, they can do anything."

My first instinct is to sigh with relief that people who look back at the Trump era and think, “more of that, please” are more likely to abstain from voting.

But then I thought about it some more, and remembered how many people around the world aren’t allowed to vote at all, or are forced to cast ballots in legitimately stolen and rigged elections. I don’t think voting should be mandatory - abstaining can be a political statement as much as casting a ballot - but it should be encouraged, even when the reluctant voter has political beliefs diametrically opposed to my own.

So, instead of letting nature run its course, we should take the high road and encourage them that it’s important they get out there and make their voices heard, by heading to the polls on November 6, 2024.