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1552. Ohio 1807 State Senate, Geauga and Trumbull Counties
1553. Ohio 1805 Justice of the Peace, Montgomery County, Dayton Township
1554. Ohio 1808 House of Representatives, Knox and Licking Counties
1555. Ohio 1803 State Senate, Ross and Franklin Counties
1556. Ohio 1824 House of Representatives, Darke, Mercer, Preble and Williams County
1557. Ohio 1823 State Supreme Court Judge, Ballot 2
1558. Ohio 1803 State Senate, Trumbull County
1559. Ohio 1804 State Senate, Gallia, Muskingum, Washington County
1560. Ohio 1803 House of Representatives, Washington County
1561. Ohio 1824 Commissioner, Cuyahoga County
1562. Ohio 1808 Constable, Knox County
1563. Ohio 1821 Sheriff, Trumbull County
1564. Ohio 1824 Coroner, Hamilton County
1565. Ohio 1820 Treasurer, Special, Ballot 2
1566. Ohio 1823 Treasurer, Hamilton County, Cincinnati Township
1567. Ohio 1812 Coroner, Pickaway County
1568. Ohio 1804 Coroner, Adams and Scioto Counties
1569. Ohio 1817 Commissioner, Columbiana County
1570. Ohio 1821 Coroner, Harrison County
1571. Ohio 1806 House of Representatives, Champaign and Greene Counties
1572. Ohio 1822 Commissioner, Licking County
1573. Ohio 1820 Coroner, Scioto County
1574. Ohio 1816 Commissioner, Columbiana County
1575. Ohio 1804 Commissioner, Hamilton County
1576. Ohio 1815 Sheriff, Columbiana County
1577. Ohio 1824 Coroner, Marion County, Special
1578. Ohio 1818 Coroner, Jefferson County
1579. Ohio 1821 Commissioner, Washington County, 1 Year
1580. Ohio 1803 Sheriff, Adams County
1581. Ohio 1824 House of Representatives, Trumbull County
1582. Ohio 1823 House of Representatives, Trumbull County
1583. Ohio 1820 Justice of the Peace, Morgan County, Morgan Township
1584. Ohio 1819 Coroner, Montgomery County
1585. Ohio 1824 Commissioner, Champaign County
1586. Ohio 1809 House of Representatives, Ross County
1587. Ohio 1812 Sheriff, Ross County
1588. Ohio 1823 Justice of the Peace, Montgomery County, Jackson Township
1589. Ohio 1823 Auditor, Richland County
1590. Ohio 1822 U.S. Senate, Special, Ballot 8
1591. Ohio 1804 House of Representatives, Ross County
1592. Ohio 1804 Sheriff, Clermont County
1593. Ohio 1823 Auditor, Harrison County
1594. Ohio 1808 Justice of the Peace, Montgomery County, German Township
1595. Ohio 1824 House of Representatives, Montgomery County
1596. Ohio 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, District 8
1597. Ohio 1821 State Senate, Cuyahoga, Huron and Sandusky Counties
1598. Ohio 1823 House of Representatives, Richland County
1599. Ohio 1822 Justice of the Peace, Montgomery County, Washington Township
1600. Ohio 1803 Constable, Greene County
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In these years, Ohio changed from a virtually unpeopled frontier area within the Northwest Territory to the fourth most powerful state in federal elections. Its first significant elections were for the lower house of the Territorial Assembly in December 1798. Suffrage was restricted to adult males who owned fifty acres freehold (the most limited franchise in the nation), although Governor Arthur St. Clair extended the vote to those who owned town lots of comparable value. Voting took place viva voce at the county seat, under the supervision of men appointed by the governor, who also determined apportionment and could veto legislation and prorogue (postpone) and dissolve the Assembly. The upper house, the Council, was appointed by the president from a list of names drawn up by the house; Congress appointed the governor on the president's nomination. This authoritarian system was overthrown when Congress passed the Enabling Act of 1802, authorizing the calling of a convention elected virtually on the basis of manhood suffrage.
Ohio became a state in March 1803, operating under the constitution drafted in November 1802. That instrument gave little power or patronage, and no veto, to the governor, who was elected biennially. The all-powerful General Assembly was divided into two chambers: The House was elected annually by county constituencies, and the Senate was elected biennially, half the members each year, in districts made up of one or more counties. There were no property qualifications for membership in the Assembly. Every four years the state took a census of adult males and redistributed legislative seats, and congressional districts were reapportioned each decade immediately after Congress had reapportioned the federal House and electoral college. Beginning with the first presidential election in 1804, the electors were chosen by statewide popular vote. The right to vote was limited to white adult males who had been resident for one year and had paid a tax. However, because the state constitution defined compulsory work on the roads as a tax and all adult males between the ages of 18 and 55 were obliged to work on the roads (or buy a substitute), this amounted to a nearly all-inclusive franchise for white males. From the start, voting was by secret ballot, with ballots deposited in special locked boxes, and whereas under the territory, voters had had to travel to the few county seats to vote, people now voted at a central place in each of the rapidly multiplying townships.
This democratic electoral system produced elections that saw a surprising degree of partisan action and comparatively high—but fluctuating—voter involvement, especially after 1807 when the key elections began to coincide in even years. The Federalist predominance of the territorial period was overthrown in 1802—1803, and the then overwhelmingly dominant Democratic-Republican party soon divided along factional lines, notably over the role of the judiciary. In some parts of the state, the Federalist Party revived after 1807 but suffered a severe decline after 1816. As a consequence, nonpartisan elections became even more common, although old-party considerations operated in some local elections into the 1820s. In 1824 Ohio's first competitive election for the presidency saw turnout surge as voters began giving their allegiance to entirely new political formations.
Bibliography
Annual Report of the Secretary of the State to the Governor of the State of Ohio: including the statistical report to the general assembly for the year 1875. Colombus, OH: Nevins & Myers, State Printers, 1876. (Lists members of the General Assembly and their districts from the formation of the state)- Brown, Jeffrey P. and Andrew R. L. Cayton, eds.
The Pursuit of Public Power: Political Culture in Ohio, 1787–1861. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1994. - Cayton, Andrew R. L.
The Frontier State: Ideology and Politics in the Ohio Country. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1986. - Ohio Historical Society, Ohio Fundamental Documents Searchable Database,
http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/database/funddocs.html - Ratcliffe, Donald J.
"Voter Turnout in Early Ohio," Journal of the Early Republic, 7 (1987): 223–251. Reprinted in New Perspectives on the Early Republic, ed. Ralph D. Gray and Michael A. Morrison. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994, pp. 269–297. - ________.
"The Mystery of Ohio's Missing Presidential Election Returns, 1804–1848," Archival Issues: The Journal of the Midwest Archives Conference, 17(2)(1992): 137–144. - ________.
Party Spirit in a Frontier Republic: Democratic Politics in Ohio, 1793–1821. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1998. - ________.
The Politics of Long Division: The Birth of the Second Party System in Ohio, 1818–1828. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2000. - ________.
"The Changing Political World of Thomas Worthington." inThe Center of a Great Empire: The Ohio Country in the Early Republic , ed. Andrew R. L. Cayton and Stuart D. Hobbs. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005, pp. 36–61. - Utter, William T.
The Frontier State, 1803–1825 , 1943 reprint ed. Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1968), Vol. 2 of Carl Wittke, ed., A History of the State of Ohio, 6 vols. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941–1944.