1788–89 United States presidential election
States appoint electors for the first U.S. presidential election
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The man everyone expected to become president was not on the ballot Washington cast that day. Washington was voting for an elector.
7 January 1789: appointment day
7 January 1789 was the date the Confederation Congress had fixed for states that had ratified the Constitution to appoint presidential electors. Those electors — not voters nationwide — were scheduled to vote for president on 4 February.
States used different procedures. Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia held popular elections for electors; several legislatures made the appointments; New Jersey used its governor and Privy Council. Maryland's voting continued through 10 January.
Venison at Page's Tavern
George Washington attended the elector poll in his Virginia district. He recorded that David Stuart received 216 Fairfax County votes against 16 for Thomas Blackburn, after which Washington dined on venison at Page's Tavern.
New York failed to appoint its allotted eight electors by 7 January. North Carolina and Rhode Island had not ratified the Constitution, so none of those three states cast electoral votes.
Not an Election Day
Nor was it a nationwide House election day. Elections for the first House ran on state-selected dates from 24 November 1788 to 22 June 1789.
No president had yet been legally elected. The electors voted on 4 February and Congress counted the ballots on 6 April, giving Washington 69 electoral votes and Adams 34 — 138 votes in all, because before the Twelfth Amendment each elector cast two undifferentiated choices.
Because only some states used popular selection and the surviving returns are incomplete, the Washington Papers concludes that a national popular-vote total cannot be reconstructed.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
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What the sources leave uncertain
- January 7 is securely documented, but it was an elector-appointment date rather than a modern, unified presidential Election Day.
- The overall selection process extended beyond January 7 in Maryland and had begun earlier through preliminary or popular voting in other states.
- Because only some states used popular selection and surviving returns are incomplete, the Washington Papers concludes that a national popular-vote total cannot be reconstructed.