Abstract

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.

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Life Table, Current Population Survey, Presidential Election, Current Population Report, Election Period

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1986