Rare and important broadside, laying out the procedures for choosing electors for the President and Vice President of the United States in the watershed election of 1796. George Washington had been elected twice without opposition, but in 1796 Adams and Jefferson both vied for the office, and political parties played a part for the first time in a presidential election. The broadside instructs the Selectmen to, “in open Meeting, sort and count the Votes, and form a list of the Names of the Persons voted for, with the number of Votes for each Person set against his Name…” Fourteen Electors were to be chosen in such fashion, with two selected at large by the Senate and House of Representatives, to make up the Massachusetts allotment of sixteen. The Electors are then “directed and required to meet on the first Wednesday of December next…at the State-House in Boston, for the purpose of voting, by Ballot, for two Persons, for President and Vice-President of the United States…” Compensation for the Electors is mentioned, and the method of transmitting the votes is set down, as well as contingencies for the deaths of electors, and other details. The printed names of Samuel Phillips, President of the State Senate, Edward H. Robbins, Speaker of the Legislature, Samuel Adams, Governor, and John Avery, Secretary, appear at the end of the document. Evans 30761; Ford, W.C. Broadsides, 2785.