in 1789 the electoral college unanimously elected george washington as the first president. he was reelected in 1792. in both cases he was the only president to receive all of the electoral votes. in the 1796 election, washington declined to run. his vice president, john adams, and his running mate thomas pinckney ran for president and vice president respectively. alexander hamilton tried to use his influence to get pinckney more votes, making adams the vice president again. but the scheme backfired when thomas jefferson got more votes than pinckney, but adams won more of the electoral votes. this made adams the president and jefferson the vice president.