Voting status life tables for the United States, 1968–1980

Using current and retrospective voting data from the November Current Population Surveys of Presidential election years, this study modifies and applies demographic accounting and increment-decrement life table methods to construct voting status life tables for three recent election periods. The paper shows how to combine a continuously occurring process (mortality) with a process that is active only at discrete times (voting transitions) within a multistate life table. Empirical results pertain to the number of Presidential elections an individual is expected to vote in at ages 0 and 18, the typical life course pattern of transitions between voting and not voting statuses, sex and race differentials, changes across the three election periods, and cohort effects.