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Show First Presidential Elections. In the early days of the republic the electors were chosen by the legislatures legis-latures of the different states and voted without any formal instructions for two persons, the person receiving the highest number of voles becoming president and the next highest vice-president. vice-president. At the first election, In 1789, there were ten states voting and 89 electoral votes. George Washington Washing-ton received all the electoral votes, 69, and John Adams of Massachusetts received re-ceived 34 votes; John Gay of New York, 9; John Rutledge of South Carolina, Caro-lina, 6; John Hancock of Massachusetts, Massachu-setts, 4; Samuel Huntington of Connecticut, Con-necticut, 2; George Clintor of New York, 3; John Milton of Georgia, 2; James Armstrong" of Georgia, 1; Benjamin Ben-jamin Lincoln of Massachusetts, 1. So Washington became president and Adams vice-president. This practice continued several years. |