Pope Paul VI by his motu proprio Ingravescentem aetatem, dated November 21, 1970, substantially modified the electoral power of the cardinals. The document stipulated that cardinals older than eighty years were deprived of their right to elect the pope and to participate in the conclave. When this provision went into effect on January 1, 1971, twenty-five cardinals lost their electoral rights. This regulation was later reaffirmed by his apostolic constitution Romano Pontifici eligendo of October 1, 1975 and by Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis of February 22, 1996.

As of July 17, 2009, the cardinals who do not have the right to participate in the conclave are 72, of which 4 were created by Pope Paul VI, 62 by Pope John Paul II and 6 by Pope Benedict XVI. Following is the list of cardinal non-electors arranged by the year in which they were born.

1911
Paul Augustin Mayer, O.S.B.

1914
Ersilio Tonini
Kazimierz Świątek

1916
Fiorenzo Angelini

1917
Cahal Brendan Daly
Luigi Poggi

1918
Giovanni Canestri
Giovanni Cheli

1919
Tomáš Špidlík, S.J.

1921
Roberto Tucci, S.J.
Paulo Evaristo Arns, O.F.M.
Stanislaw Kazimierz Nagy, S.C.I.
Carlo Furno

1922
Virgilio Noè
Georges-Marie-Martin Cottier, O.P.
Gilberto Agustoni
Lorenzo Antonetti
Luis Aponte Martínez
Roger Etchegaray

1923
Jorge María Mejía
Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua
Albert Vanhoye, S.J.
Henryk Roman Gulbinowicz
Achille Silvestrini
Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, S.J.
Edward Bede Clancy

1924
Ján Chryzostom Korec, S.J.
Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy
Silvano Piovanelli
Andrzej Maria Deskur
Jozef Tomko
Alexandre José María dos Santos, O.F.M.
Edward Idris Cassidy
Serafim Fernandes de Araújo
Giovanni Saldarini

1925
Alexandre do Nascimento
Marco Cé
Francisco Álvarez Martínez
Armand Gaetán Razafindratandra
Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo
José Freire Falcão
Giovanni Coppa

1926
Miguel Obando Bravo, S.D.B.
Estanislao Esteban Karlic
Bernard Agré
Desmond Connell
Agostino Cacciavillan
Marian Jaworski
Ricardo María Carles Gordó
William Wakefield Baum
Emmanuel Wamala
Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez

1927
Carlo Maria Martini, S.J.
Eduardo Martínez Somalo
László Paskai, O.F.M.
Franciszek Macharski
Varkey Vithayathil, C.SS.R.
Edmund Casimir Szoka
Emmanuel III Delly
Angelo Sodano

1928
Friedrich Wetter
Giacomo Biffi
Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi

1929
Michael Michai Kitbunchu
Francesco Marchisano
Darío Castrillón Hoyos

©1998-2010 Salvador Miranda.