Who was eligable to vote and hold office 1820?

The Electorate. The states controlled who could and could not vote in 1840. Most had eliminated property requirements over the previous few decades: in all but three states -- Rhode Island, Virginia and Louisiana -- the suffrage had expanded to include all white males over twenty six years old. Women could not vote. Most states also excluded African Americans and Native Americans; free blacks could vote only in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. New York and Pennsylvania had recently withdrawn voting rights from their free black populations. So the expansion of white suffrage under Jacksonian democracy had come at the expense of men of color: America was in the midst of transforming itself from a polity defined by property to one defined by race.

found at: http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/discovery/themes/election.1840.html

Hope this helps!

Terri

www.rockinbabiesromania.blogspot.com