U.S. Congress Passes Act for First Presidential Election
- When
- 1788
- Where
- United States in Congress Assembled
- Episodes
- 2
On September 13, 1788, the Congress of the Confederation passed an act setting the timeline for choosing the first President under the newly ratified U.S. Constitution: electors would be chosen on January 7, 1789, and would vote on February 4, 1789. The same action set March 4, 1789, as the date the Constitution would become operative and the new Congress would convene.
Episodes
- Act Setting the Timeline for the First Presidential Election
The Confederation Congress passed an act on September 13, 1788, fixing dates for choosing electors and for their votes.
- Date Set for the Constitution to Become Operative
The same congressional action set March 4, 1789, as the date the Constitution would become operative and the new Congress would convene.
Background and detail
The Act of September 13, 1788. On September 13, 1788, the Confederation Congress set the date for choosing the electors in the Electoral College as January 7, 1789, and 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 and assemble to cast their votes on the first Wednesday in February. Additionally, the date for the Constitution to become operative was set for March 4, 1789, when the new Congress of the United States should convene.
Sources
- Congress of the Confederation Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-16
- 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.