Voting and Registration Supplement Sample Notes
The Voting and Registration Supplement for the Current Population Survey has been included biennially in the November basic monthly survey for every Congressional and Presidential election year since 1964. The supplement gathers information about voting and registration behaviors, namely whether or not they voted or registered, and by what means they voted or registered. The survey has never included questions regarding partisan affiliation. The structure of the supplement format has remained basically the same since 1996. However, prior to 1996, the supplement in certain years also included questions about media exposure, time of day they voted, or the last election in which they voted.
The universe for this supplement is United States citizens age 18 and older. Users should note that there are a non-negligible number of individuals who are above the age of 18 and are citizens, but are considered Not in Universe. The reason they are ineligible to vote is unknown.
On average, 57 percent of responses were self-reported, while the remaining responses were provided by a proxy. Refusal to answer, no response, and "don't know" were options for most questions. "Don't know" responses were more common when answered by a proxy. The lowest level of geography available is state, due to the small sample size. Differences in official ballot counts and CPS estimates might be a result of official counts not reporting mismarked, unreadable, and blank ballots. Additionally, a respondent might have voted for only particular office, instead of filling the entire ballot.
VOSUPPWT is the Voter supplement weight. This weight is identical to the basic survey sample weights for the samples IPUMS supports.
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