While doing the data entry one of our project assistants, David Doughan, came across a set of election returns for Henry Clay for a previously unknown special election  for congress in 1815. There was no mention of this special election in any of the secondary sources (Bio. Directory of U.S. Congress, Dubin, etc. ).  Phil Lampi looked for further evidence in the contemporary newspapers and found out that there was indeed a special election for Congress in 1815.  Here’s what happened. While Henry Clay was abroad settling the treaty to end the War of 1812, he ran for the 14th congress and won.  (He had resigned from the 13th congress before taking the post).  However, he was not back State-side before start of the 14th congress and the Governor declared his seat vacant.  Clay ran in this special election to fill his own seat and was unopposed.  But there was no mention of this special election in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress.  We contacted them and the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives verified it by located at the the writ of election issued by the governor in 1815 Kentucky State Archives .  You can now see the revised version of Clay biography online.  We’re re-writing history!

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000482

I found this interesting document about the reasoning behind the creation of the electoral college citing distance and limited communication technology as part of it.  All I know is it would pretty hard to get rid of.  For better or worse, we have been stuck with it since the beginning.

eleccoll.pdf