How was the electoral process for choosing the president decided on at the constitutional convention?

Answer 1

George Washington was elected as president by unanimous vote at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. In addition to his election, delegates decided to lower the term of office from seven to four years, allowed a president to hold office for more than one term, and specified Senate as the legislative branch which would oversee impeachment hearings.

Answer 2

In the midst of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the members of the convention had difficulty in deciding how to elect a President of the United States. So they empowered a panel, "the committee of eleven" to come up with a resolution. The eleven were Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, the chairman of the committee, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, Robert Yates of New York, William Patterson of New Jersey, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Gunning Bedford, Jr of Delaware, Luthur Martin of Maryland, George Mason of Virginia, William Davie of North Carolina, John Rutledge of South Carolina, and Abraham Baldwin of Georgia. The first idea was to have the people directly elect the President. This proposal was rejected since people did not have enough information about their candidates outside their state as information flowed very slowly during those times. There were only 4 million citizens at the time. Another idea was to have Congress choose the president . This motion was rejected for the fear of outside influence especially from foreign powers and would upset the balance of powers. Then a proposal in having the state legislature choose the president was also rejected for the same reasons. Also the state legislature would choose the most popular person in their state and the candidate would not get a majority of votes to become president. The committee agreed on indirect voting by the people of each state choose electors to an Electoral College. The idea of an Electoral college came from the way the Catholic Church's Pope is elected. This method became Article II, Section I of the constitution. The Article also stated that the person with the second most votes would become Vice President. This only lasted 4 elections as a Constitutional Amendment changed this method. Other Amendments were later ratified to plug up other holes in the process.

Answer 3

They weren't yet. The first presidential election wasn't until the following year.