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Trivia answer
How many electoral votes were up for grabs in the first presidential election (1789)?
a. 13
b. 50
c. 69
d. 81
Sixty-nine electoral votes were available in the 1789 presidential election. George Washington ran unopposed, and won all 69 of the votes.[1]
The first election since the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788 had only 10 states cast electoral votes. New York's state legislature did not choose electors in time for them to cast a vote, and North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution. Congress counted and certified the electoral vote count on April 6.[1]
At that time, each elector had two votes, and the candidate who received the second-most votes was elected as vice president. John Adams was elected the first vice president with 34 electoral votes.[1]
For more information about the Electoral College, click here.
| U.S. presidential election, 1789 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Electoral votes | |||
| None |  George Washington |
69 | |||
| None | John Adams | 34 | |||
| None | John Jay | 9 | |||
| None | R.H. Harrison | 6 | |||
| None | John Rutledge | 6 | |||
| None | John Hancock | 4 | |||
| None | George Clinton | 3 | |||
| None | Samuel Huntington | 2 | |||
| None | John Milton | 2 | |||
| None | James Armstrong | 1 | |||
| None | Benjamin Lincoln | 1 | |||
| None | Edward Telfair | 1 | |||
| Total Votes | 138 | ||||
| Election results via: United States Office of the Federal Register - 1789 official election results | |||||
Footnotes
