metes and bounds survey in Shenandoah Valley, 1750
Source: Library of Congress, George Washington survey - Plat of survey for John Lindsey of 223 acres in Frederick County, Va
To vote in Virginia, you had to own land. The "freehold" requirement ensured that the electorate would have conservative inclinations - the assumption being that those who own property in an area are less inclined to raise property taxes and redistribute the wealth indiscriminately. When Kentucky separated from Virginia and became the 15th state in 1792, it's constitution did not require that voters had to own land. While this may have reflected some democratic tendencies, "land claims in Kentucky overlapped each other like shingles on a roof and titles were so subject to controversy that it would have been impossible to determine who were the freeholders."1
The endless legal disputes stimulated Thomas Jefferson to spur the Congress to establish the Public Land Survey System even before the Constitution was drafted, and long before a constellation of satellites established the Global Position System (GPS).