Electoral Odyssey / Interactive election atlas
1789 Presidential Election
See how the first Electoral College system worked before electors cast separate votes for president and vice president.
Election rules
Original Electoral College
Electoral result
69 EV · George Washington
Map dated
1789-01-07
Electoral College result
How the states voted
Display
View
This 1789 result uses the 2020 poll-closing chronology as a cinematic reference sequence, not historical 1789 polling or call timing.
Timing source: The Green Papers 2020 poll-closing chronologyReference poll-close stream
Electoral Token Board
Token width reflects stored electoral votes
- VA
- VA
- VA
- VA
- VA
- SC
- SC
- SC
- GA
- GA
- GA
- GA
- GA
- MA
- MA
- PA
- PA
- PA
- CT
- CT
- CT
- MD
- MD
- NJ
- NJ
- NJ
- NH
- NH
- DE
- DE
Founding Rules
The rules were different.
Before the Twelfth Amendment took effect, electors did not cast separate votes for president and vice president. These results preserve that combined voting system exactly as it appeared in the historical record.
1789—2024
Sixty elections, one continuous record
Swipe or scroll through the record. Arrow keys move from a focused year.
Official result
Election summary
- President
- George Washington [F]
- Main opponent
- John Adams [F]
- Source note
- For all intents and purposes, Washington was unopposed for election as President. Under the system then in place, votes for Vice President were not differentiated from votes for President.
State-by-state result
Electoral votes by state
A state appears more than once when its electoral votes were split between candidates.
| State | Candidate | Electoral votes |
|---|---|---|
| CONNECTICUT CT | George Washington, Esq | 7 |
| CONNECTICUT CT | John Adams, Esq | 5 |
| CONNECTICUT CT | Samuel Huntington, Esq | 2 |
| DELAWARE DE | George Washington, Esq | 3 |
| DELAWARE DE | John Jay, Esq | 3 |
| GEORGIA GA | George Washington, Esq | 5 |
| GEORGIA GA | John Milton, Esq | 2 |
| GEORGIA GA | Benjamin Lincoln, Esq | 1 |
| GEORGIA GA | Edward Telfair, Esq | 1 |
| GEORGIA GA | James Armstrong, Esq | 1 |
| MARYLAND MD | George Washington, Esq | 6 |
| MARYLAND MD | Robert H. Harrison, Esq | 6 |
| MASSACHUSETTS MA | George Washington, Esq | 10 |
| MASSACHUSETTS MA | John Adams, Esq | 10 |
| NEW HAMPSHIRE NH | George Washington, Esq | 5 |
| NEW HAMPSHIRE NH | John Adams, Esq | 5 |
| NEW JERSEY NJ | George Washington, Esq | 6 |
| NEW JERSEY NJ | John Jay, Esq | 5 |
| NEW JERSEY NJ | John Adams, Esq | 1 |
| PENNSYLVANIA PA | George Washington, Esq | 10 |
| PENNSYLVANIA PA | John Adams, Esq | 8 |
| PENNSYLVANIA PA | John Hancock, Esq | 2 |
| SOUTH CAROLINA SC | George Washington, Esq | 7 |
| SOUTH CAROLINA SC | John Rutledge, Esq | 6 |
| SOUTH CAROLINA SC | John Hancock, Esq | 1 |
| VIRGINIA VA | George Washington, Esq | 10 |
| VIRGINIA VA | John Adams, Esq | 5 |
| VIRGINIA VA | George Clinton, Esq | 3 |
| VIRGINIA VA | John Hancock, Esq | 1 |
| VIRGINIA VA | John Jay, Esq | 1 |
Data X-Ray v1
Trace the scene
The display layer never replaces the observed NARA label or the checksum-pinned geometry identity.
Candidate identities
- George Washington
- Observed: George Washington, Esq
- John Adams
- Observed: John Adams, Esq
- John Jay
- Observed: John Jay, Esq
- John Rutledge
- Observed: John Rutledge, Esq
- Robert H. Harrison
- Observed: Robert H. Harrison, Esq
- John Hancock
- Observed: John Hancock, Esq
- George Clinton
- Observed: George Clinton, Esq
- John Milton
- Observed: John Milton, Esq
- Samuel Huntington
- Observed: Samuel Huntington, Esq
- Benjamin Lincoln
- Observed: Benjamin Lincoln, Esq
- Edward Telfair
- Observed: Edward Telfair, Esq
- James Armstrong
- Observed: James Armstrong, Esq
Geometry build
- Version
- labs-election-states:1789:overview
- Reference date
- 1789-01-07
- Artifact SHA-256
- 0bd5cb10e729351134128ce4e797dfbde5969ed51f65f8daea121043b21dd49e
Office and import semantics
undifferentiated_president_vp · labs-elections:6dbf3e52c41a13254056a211 · 15 validation checks passed · 0 failed
Coverage and interpretation notes
The rules were different
Before the Twelfth Amendment system took effect, electors did not cast separate modern presidential and vice-presidential ballots. These totals remain undifferentiated.
Historical geometry is independently versioned
The map uses a checksum-pinned, election-date geometry build while Electoral College allocations remain traced to the NARA fact tables.
County detail begins in 2000
County-level popular-vote detail is available only for 2000 through 2024. This election has state-level Electoral College coverage.
Traceable facts
Sources and provenance
- National Archives Electoral College Results
State and candidate Electoral College allocations · retrieved 2026-07-25
- National Archives Electoral College Results
Election summary and source notes · retrieved 2026-07-25
- Data version
- labs-elections:6dbf3e52c41a13254056a211
- Import validation
- 15 passed · 10 documented warnings · 0 failures