Final answer:
Property qualifications for voting continued in Virginia during the early to mid-nineteenth century mainly because the state's politics were dominated by large-scale slaveholders, maintaining the influence of the wealthy elite.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the early to mid-nineteenth century, property qualifications for voting continued in Virginia because large-scale slaveholders dominated the state's politics. The political landscape of this era saw a shift with many states reducing property qualifications or moving towards universal white manhood suffrage. However, states like Virginia persisted with property qualifications to maintain the political power of the wealthy elite and deny suffrage to free blacks, which reflects the deep entrenchment of certain traditional practices in older states of the Union. This was in contrast to newer states in the Midwest and elsewhere that broadly extended the right to vote to all White men, regardless of property ownership or taxpaying status.