Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Act Setting the Timeline for the First Presidential Election

When
September 13, 1788
Where
United States in Congress Assembled
Part of
U.S. Congress Passes Act for First Presidential Election

The Confederation Congress passed an act on September 13, 1788, fixing dates for choosing electors and for their votes.

On September 13, 1788, the Confederation Congress set the date for choosing the electors in the Electoral College, established for choosing the first president of the United States, as January 7, 1789. It set the date for the electors to vote for the president as February 4, 1789. The outgoing Congress announced the procedure, stipulating that all electors must be chosen on the first Wednesday in January (January 7, 1789), and that the electors must assemble to cast their votes for president and vice president on the first Wednesday in February (February 4).

Sources

  1. Congress of the Confederation Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-16
  2. 1788–89 United States presidential election Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.