I'm not sure if you're including both under the same heading but where I'm at people have about 70 elected officials each and on 2,4,and 6 year terms that makes for 20-25 people each general election, plus ballot issues, levies, the primaries and so on. There's nothing wrong with leaving a blank mark if you're looking at an Appellate Court race and you've got no clue who either is. I pull up a digital copy of my ballot in advance and research the people but even then I'll forget who is who sometimes and that wasn't an option till fairly recently, so I'd leave it blank. I do wish ballots would have a 'none' option on them to make me feel a bit safer about blanks if a recount comes up and to give a visual suggestion to people who don't know and feel weird about leaving it blank, but there's nothing wrong with leaving blanks, even on the presidency.

Now as for flat out non-voters, that really depends on their reasons. If its laziness then its one thing, but if they simply view themselves as not knowing enough and not having the time then I view them as having given me part of their vote. 850 odd reg voters in my own village, only 200-400 show up for most elections, the other 400-650 people divide their votes to me and the others, makes my vote locally worth 2 to 4 times as much. I research my stuff so my share of their vote is in good hands. We really shouldn't push at people to vote, we should stress that they should seek to be an informed voter and not hesitate to pass, on a single ballot issue especially, if they don't feel informed. Now strategically that's not such a good idea, as anyone doing a 'get out the vote' movement can effectively steal an election by pushing at people and giving them a one-sided take on things, but it still behooves us as a culture not to try to push the apathetic or lazy into making decisions for the rest of us. Rule by the people sounds nice, but rule by the voluntarily enthusiastic and informed people works better, IMHO.