# Who voted for the specially elected state conventions to ratify the constitution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335 "2023-03-18T20:15:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/1 "2023-03-18T20:15:46Z")
Ratification began when the proposed constitution was presented to each state’s specially elected conventions to vote on. How were these conventions populated? I have found reference to “conventions of the people” but I don’t know who “the people” were. I have also read that in that election, anyone could vote, with no tests for property ownership, or anything else. So how did the delegates to these conventions get chosen? Who voted for them? Who ran for them? Any good sources? I haven’t found anything that informs me. Any help, Dopers? xo, C. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/2 "2023-03-18T20:33:20Z")
Interesting question. I’ve been looking around with very little luck. It’s clear that the state legislatures appointed the delegates to the Philadelphia convention, but I haven’t found out yet how the individual state conventions that ratified the Constitution were selected ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/3 "2023-03-18T20:40:56Z")
Looks like each state elected a certain number of representatives per county > **[The Six Stages of Ratification](https://teachingamericanhistory.org/resource/fafd-stagetwo/)** > > Est. reading time: 8 minutes Presumably, anyone eligible to vote for the legislature would have been eligible to vote for delegates (note that for New Jersey that included women and African Americans [Did You Know: Women and African Americans Could Vote in NJ before the 15th and 19th Amendments? (U.S. National Park Service)](https://www.nps.gov/articles/voting-rights-in-nj-before-the-15th-and-19th.htm)) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/4 "2023-03-18T21:19:17Z")
I only find this: In Myth America, the authors suggest that the delegates to the state conventions were elected by almost the entire population - their point being that the adoption of the Constitution was an especially democratic process, contrary to assertions to the contrary. “In eight of the thirteen states, ordinary property qualifications (either to vote for convention delegates or to run as a delegate or both) were lowered or eliminated. In no state were property qualifications raised for this special once-in-a-lifetime ratification experience. In New York, for example, all adult free male citizens could vote for convention delegates - no race tests, no property tests, no religious tests, no literacy tests. …they were special rules - especially democratic rules - designed for an especially democratic ratification process.” ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/5 "2023-03-18T22:11:07Z")
ChatGPT3.5 claims that of the 13 states, only Georgia’s ratifying convention delegates were appointed directly by the state legislature. “The delegates were chosen based on their political affiliations and their support for the Constitution.” Take that with a big grain of salt; My googling couldn’t come up with anything quickly to confirm or refute that. > [@ChatGPT 3.5](#): > > In Georgia, the state legislature appointed a convention to consider the new Constitution, and the convention was composed of delegates appointed by the legislature. The delegates were chosen based on their political affiliations and their support for the Constitution. > > The legislature appointed a total of 26 delegates to the convention, including prominent figures such as William Few, Abraham Baldwin, and William Houstoun. The delegates were a mix of lawyers, merchants, and plantation owners, and many had served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. > > The convention convened on December 25, 1787, in Augusta, Georgia, and after several weeks of debate, they voted unanimously to ratify the Constitution. The delegates were convinced that the Constitution would provide a strong central government and promote economic development in Georgia. > > It’s worth noting that the process of ratifying the Constitution in Georgia was somewhat controversial. Some members of the state legislature had initially opposed the Constitution and had tried to block its ratification. However, they ultimately acquiesced to the wishes of the majority and appointed a convention to consider the new Constitution. I did a quick spot check of one of the claimed facts from that, and found William Houstoun’s wikipedia article mentions he was a delegate sent to the original Philadelphia 1787 convention, but it doesn’t mention his participation in the ratification convention at all. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/6 "2023-03-18T23:14:54Z")
> [@CC](#): > > the authors suggest that the delegates to the state conventions were elected by almost the entire population > [@CC](#): > > In New York, for example, all adult free male citizens could vote for convention delegates When you leave out all the women, you already don’t have “almost the entire population.” ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/7 "2023-03-19T02:32:11Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@CC](#): > > > > In New York, for example, all adult free male citizens could vote for convention delegates > > When you leave out all the women, you already don’t have “almost the entire population.” All adult\* free\* male\* citizens\*; restrictions apply ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/8 "2023-03-20T00:20:36Z")
To answer such questions, see the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution of the United States, a monster 36-volume (that’s right, 36 volumes) collection, published over a period of decades by the Center for the Study of the American Constitution, and available online. As an example of how it can answer questions, a very quick search shows that the Georgia Legislature absolutely did not appoint delegates to its convention. They were elected by the people on December 4, 1787. I would need more time to look up any changes to ordinary suffrage requirements that may or may not have been made in all 13 states. The states varied significantly in their existing suffrage requirements so any changes made would have been starting from a different point in each state. The Rhode Island legislature refused to call a convention election until 1790. Every other state called and held its election in late 1787 or early 1788. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/9 "2023-03-20T02:00:19Z")
Beautiful! Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-voted-for-the-specially-elected-state-conventions-to-ratify-the-constitution/981335/10 "2023-03-20T04:18:15Z")
A scan of the resolutions calling the conventions confirms that New York waived its property qualification for voting to elect delegates, but that _no other state_ (among the states that had such a qualification) did so. In every other state, the qualifications for voters to vote for the state House of Representatives simply carried over to the delegate vote. The New York waiver seems to have attracted relatively little debate. I suspect, but can’t prove, that the _anti_-federalists than dominant in New York adopted it as a roadblock to the Constitution, in the belief that property-less riff-raff would be less likely to support the Constitution than men of means.