United States presidential election, 1789
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Image:ElectoralCollege1789-Large.png The United States presidential election of 1789 was the first presidential election in the United States of America. Prior to the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789, the United States had no office of President. (While there was an office under the Articles of Confederation called the President of the United States in Congress Assembled, it was the chair of the Congress and was akin to the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate.)
For all intents and purposes, George Washington ran unopposed for election as President. Under the system then in place, each voting elector cast two votes, and the recipient of the greatest number of votes was elected President, providing they equaled or exceeded half the total number of electors. The runner-up became Vice President. (See Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution for a fuller description of the pre-12th Amendment electoral system.)
The recipient of 34 electoral votes, John Adams of Massachusetts, finished second in voting and as such was elected Vice President of the United States.
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General election
In the absence of parties, there was no formal nomination process. The framers of Constitution had presumed that Washington would be the first President, and once he agreed to come out of retirement to accept the office, there was no opposition to him. Individual states chose their electors, who voted en bloc for Washington when they met.
Electors used their second vote to cast a scattering of votes, many voting for someone besides Adams less out of opposition to him than to prevent Adams from matching Washington's total.
New York failed to appoint its allotment of eight electors, and subsequently cast no electoral votes. North Carolina and Rhode Island also did not cast votes, as they had not yet ratified the United States Constitution.
Results
Popular vote
| Slate | Popular Vote(a) | |
|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | |
| Federalist electors | 35,866 | 92.4% |
| Anti-Federalist electors | 2,952 | 7.6% |
| Total | 38,818 | 100.0% |
Source: U.S. President National Vote. Our Campaigns. (February 11, 2006).
(a) Popular vote figures are suspect because (1) only 6 of the 10 states casting electoral votes chose electors by any form of popular vote, (2) pre-Twelfth Amendment electoral vote rules obscure the intentions of the voters, and (3) those states that did choose electors by popular vote often restricted the vote via property requirements.
Electoral vote
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Source: Template:National Archives EV source
(a) Popular vote figures are suspect because (1) only 6 of the 10 states casting electoral votes chose electors by any form of popular vote, (2) pre-Twelfth Amendment electoral vote rules obscure the intentions of the voters, and (3) those states that did choose electors by popular vote often restricted the vote via property requirements.
(b) The New York legislature failed to appoint its allotted 8 electors in time, so there were no voting electors from New York.
(c) Two electors from Maryland did not vote.
(d) One elector from Virginia did not vote and another elector from Virginia was not chosen because an election district failed to submit returns.
Breakdown by ticket
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Electoral college selection
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(a) New York's legislature deadlocked, so no electors were chosen.
(b) One electoral district failed to chose an elector.
See also
References
- Books
- Web sites
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