The city of South Portland recorded 16,451 voters in the most recent presidential election, held Nov. 3, 2020. In a city where the total number of registered voters is approximately 20,000, this is a remarkable turnout.

This had me wondering about the first presidential election. How many people voted? Who voted? Who did the people vote for? How was the election organized? So began a research project.

We know that George Washington received 69 unanimous votes and that these votes were made by the “Presidential Electors” who made up the Electoral College. But who were the electors? The information has been surprisingly difficult to uncover.

The first presidential election was held across the country from December 1788 to January 1789, soon after the new U.S. Constitution was ratified. Knowing these dates, I took a look through Volume 1 of the town of Cape Elizabeth’s record book to see if I could find the election returns from the first presidential election. They were there, but I missed them at first, because I was looking for something that stated the number of votes for George Washington. However, I didn’t see it – anywhere. Wasn’t there a popular vote for president?

Yes – and no. Today, we receive a ballot that has the name of the president (and vice president) listed and we cast a vote directly for the candidate, known as the popular vote. However, this is much different from the way the people voted for president in the country’s first federal election.

To form the Electoral College, each state was awarded the number of electoral votes as they had representatives to Congress: one for each senator, and then one for each representative. However, congressmen did not serve as the presidential electors.

So who were the electors?

How electors were chosen differed by state. In Massachusetts (recall that the District of Maine was part of Massachusetts), each district was instructed to elect two electors by popular vote along with their election for representative to Congress. This election was to occur statewide on Dec. 18, 1788. These electors would go on to elect the president and vice president of the United States.

With this new information, I hurriedly looked to find this record in our volumes. It is recorded: in Cape Elizabeth (part of the Cumberland, Lincoln and York district of Massachusetts), on Dec. 18, 1788, the voters selected the Hon. John Fox and Edmund Finney, Esq., as the electors for president and vice president, each with 36 votes – by far the lowest turnout of any presidential election in the town’s history – but one has to remember, back then, only a small percentage of the total population had the right to vote.

After the election, all of the election returns from every town in every district were compiled in Massachusetts, and the top two electors who received the most votes in each district were declared on Jan. 5, 1789.

But, this didn’t make sense. This is 16 electors – and Massachusetts only had 10 electors (one for each senate seat, and one for each representative of the eight districts). So, what happened?

According to Tufts Digital Collections and Archives, the Massachusetts General Court would go on to choose one elector from among the top two candidates in each district to go along with two at-large Electors chosen solely by the General Court. So from this list of 16, eight were chosen by the Court – one from each district (it wasn’t necessarily the one who received the most votes!) – and two chosen by the court as an at-large appointment. This selection occurred on Jan. 7, 1789.

Finally, I had an answer. The Massachusetts presidential electors were: William Sever, Samuel Henshaw, Walter Spooner, David Sewall, Samuel Phillips Jr., Francis Dana, Caleb Davis, Moses Gill and Nathan Cushing (at-large) and William Shepard (at-large).

The electors cast their vote for president and vice president on Feb. 4, 1789.

I would be remiss to not mention here a bit about our first presidential elector – who was voted via popular vote of our district (comprised of the towns within Cumberland, Lincoln and York) and selected by the court.

David Sewall was an accomplished lawyer and judge, and according to his biography on “Find A Grave,” written by Arnold L. Corkins: “He was a classmate and friend of John Adams who later was to become President of the USA. He studied for the profession of law, and began practice in York, ME, in the connection with the office of Register of Probate. In 1777, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts; and in 1789 he was appointed by President Washington, a judge of the United States Court for the District of Maine. This Court then had the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of the United States. He was the second educated lawyer of that State. He was President of the Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College for fourteen years. He is said to have been a good man, as well as a good lawyer, and is spoken of as the “upright judge.” He was a man of great benevolence and of great purity of character. He was unassuming in his deportment, social and amiable in his manners. He died at the age of 90 years, having filled the office of judge for 41 years.”

David Sewall is buried in Old York Cemetery, Maine. His role as presidential elector in the first presidential election of the country is forgotten among the many highlights and accolades of his career.

Emily Scully is city clerk for South Portland and a secretary for South Portland Historical Society.

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