Voting was not according to each citizen but by century. Each century voted internally to determine how the century would cast their collective vote. Centuriate votes were cast by order of class, and halted once a majority of 97 centuries had been acquired, meaning that the poorest centuries rarely got to cast their vote.

Armies were forbidden within the pomerium (the traditional legal and religious boundary of Rome), so the Comitia Centuriata, which was originally a military assembly, could not meet inside the pomerium. The Assembly was generally called to the Campus Martius, which was large enough to accommodate the full male citizen population of Rome. The Assembly was presided over by a consul or praetor, or by an interrex conducting an emergency consular election.

The sheer size and difficulties in conducting a vote of the Comitia Centuriata meant that it lost its status as the main law-making body of the Roman Republic. In the Late Republic it was generally only used to elect censors, praetors and consuls, although it retained legislative powers. Notably, it passed a law to recall Cicero from exile. It also sat to try cases of high treason (perduellio), although this latter function fell into disuse after Lucius Appuleius Saturninus introduced a more workable format (maiestas).

Voting with such a large group of people caused it to fail as the main law-making body of the Roman Republic. In the late Republic it was only used to elect censors, praetors, and consuls. It passed a law to recall Cicero from exile and also tried cases of high treason for a time.