just for fun I thought I would take a look at some electoral maps of yesteryear. Thought maybe others might be interested so I turned it into a diary. The early elections are a little confusing. I started to read a little about these and just got more confused. The 1796 election was the first contested election and the only election where the President and Vice-President were from different parties. There was no concept of a running mate at this time. The candidate with the most electoral votes became the President and the candidate with the second most votes became the Vice-President. The constitution lets each state determine how they will choose their electoral votes and different states chose different methods. Our form of government was new and it took a while to iron out the wrinkles I guess.