When the writing of the Constitution was completed, it was sent out for ratification to conventions of the people, meeting by state. The minimum necessary level of ratification for establishment of the Constitution was set at nine of the thirteen conventions (69%) by the new proposed Constitution itself. Ratification by nine was a “respectable majority,” made familiar by the existing Articles. Nine of thirteen states had been the level required by the Articles of Confederation for reasonably routine actions, such as charging expenses to the common or federal treasury. No state would be bound until both nine states and its own convention had ratified, but the new government would be formed when the ninth convention ratified. The Federalists, as noted, did not expect ratification in all states. The nine-state minimum level for ratification meant that the states that had vetoed the impost – Rhode Island, New York, and Virginia – would not have to be brought in and another could be lost to spare. But the Federalists asked for ratification in all the states, and after delays and against their expectations, they got it.

Table 6.1 lists the order by which the states ratified the Constitution and the percentage of the delegates to the states's convention that ultimately voted in favor of ratification.

Delegates representing 65 percent of the electorate (weighing states by population) ultimately voted to ratify the Constitution. Opponents to ratification garnered just over a third of the delegates.