One way property determined power appeared in the organization
of the popular vote. Even if in the late republic the poorest
citizens were entitled to vote, their votes did not carry the same
weight in the comitia as those of the rich, because of the system of
voting by groups. The voting units that were counted for the final
tally were not individuals but rather groups. The way individuals
voted within each group determined the group vote, but the vote of
each group had the same weight, regardless of its size. The voting
groups consisted of centuries (military and fiscal divisions) in the
case of centuriate assemblies (comitia centuriata)9 and tribes (territorial
divisions) in the case of tribal assemblies (comitia tributa). The
advantage held by the propertied classes was particularly clear in
the former, since the centuries of the lower classes comprised larger
numbers of citizens than those of the upper classes. Comitia tributa,
by contrast, had a more popular character.