Ohio's political system evolved amid a mobile, unsettled electorate. During the early decades of statehood, especially, the westward movement carried hundreds of thousands of settlers into and through Ohio. Later, the growth of cities, rapid innovations in transportation, and foreign immigration dominated patterns of movement within and through the state. At first glance, the residents of Ohio's townships succeeded quite well in maintaining political order in the face of widespread migration. But on closer examination that political stability proves to have been superficial only. The local political continuity so often displayed in election returns was actually the end result of a complex set of suffrage rules, election practices, partisan tactics, and personal relationships designed to make partisan politics workable in the midst of migration. Ohio's antebellum political system evolved over several generations during which rapid and frequent population turnover was a political as well as social fact of life. It would be surprising indeed if the aggressive national expansion that drew millions of migrants westward through Ohio did not help to direct the state's political development.

Ohio's initially simple political practices had to change gradually to accommodate the burgeoning streams of migrants moving through and within the state. The formal mission of any political system is, of course, to choose public officials and to make decisions. But Ohio's political system, like all political systems, had to do more. It had to perform the additional, informal function of maintaining political order in the wake of social change.