Presidential Election of 1789

Selection of Electors

Electors, responsible for casting votes for president and vice president in the Electoral College, were chosen, as per the Constitution, by each state as determined by its legislature. This meant that there were many different methods by which electors were chosen across the country. These methods included popular election by either the district or on a general ticket, legislative appointment by either joint or contemporaneous vote, or a variety of mixed systems that combined these methods.

Although each state had all of these choices, Congress, in setting an extremely short and strict time restriction on the establishment of the electoral system within each state, seemed to have believed that the states would have chosen their legislatures as the decision makers in determining who would represent the state as presidential and vice presidential electors. As this was not the case in many states, they had to work quickly in order to ensure that their electors were in place before the deadline was reached, as many of the processes involved in their chosen systems of elector selection were lengthy.

Of the 13 states, only 10 cast electoral votes in the 1789 election; North Carolina, Rhode Island, and New York did not participate. North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the U.S. Constitution and were, therefore, ineligible to participate in the election. New York was unable to meet the deadline set by the Continental Congress for the appointment of its required number electors, which would have allowed it to cast its votes in the Electoral College.

Electoral Process

This was the first time that Article II of the Constitution, regulating the election of president and vice president of the United States, would be tested. The Article declares that the president and vice president are to be elected in a single election, with electors being allowed to cast two votes, each which must be used on two different candidates. Electors were allowed to use one of their votes on a candidate from their home state, but they were required to use their other vote on a candidate from another state to ensure that they were not merely voting for those candidates who lived within their home states. The candidate who received the majority of the electoral votes became president. The individual who finished second in number of electoral votes was declared vice president. Using this system, there was the potential for a tie between two candidates, in which case it was the House of Representatives' responsibility to make the decision.

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