But to nonvoters themselves, those issues don’t seem to be at the forefront of their minds: Only 8 percent of nonvoters said they don’t vote because they don’t have the time to get to the polls — fourth on the list of reasons they cited. Only 5 percent of nonvoters said they don’t vote because they aren’t registered.

That was the surprising finding of a sweeping new study released Wednesday by the Knight Foundation. The study, which involved polling and interviews with over 14,000 people, showed that a plurality of nonvoters cited a dislike of the candidates (17 percent) and a feeling that their votes don’t matter (12 percent) as the main motivators for not voting.

There were similar responses with why eligible citizens chose not to register. According to the study, 29 percent of nonvoters said they were not registered to vote because of a lack of interest, followed by 13 percent saying their votes don’t matter. Only 8 percent said they don’t vote because they don’t know how or it’s too complicated.