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Old February 6th, 2016 #18
John from Canada
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Join Date: Mar 2012
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Typical property requirement for voting in colonial America was 40 acres of land or 40 pounds, neither of which was a whole lot. 40 acres aka a "quarter section" was about the bare minimum to support a family and 40 pounds would be less than $10,000 today. So the only people disqualified by these measures were young men who had not yet settled down and drunks who could not remain sober long enough to stake a claim and make the necessary improvements.

It's often assumed that property requirements favor the "evil rich" but that is hardly the case. Property requirements favor the middle class by excluding the mass of voters who can be bought by the rich.