1st session and Rhode Island in the 1st and 2nd sessions of a total of 3 sessions. House composition Beginning of the 1st Congress End of the 1st Congress (1791) Six seats were filled late because North Carolina and Rhode Island ratified the Constitution late. One pro-Administration representative resigned and the seat remained open at the end of the Congress. Special election This was the first special election to the United States House of Representatives. |- ! nowrap | | Benjamin West | | Pro-Administration | 1788/89 | | Member-elect (see below) chose not to serve.New member elected June 22, 1789.Pro-Administration hold. | nowrap | |} Connecticut Delaware Delaware had a single representative. The election was held January 7, 1789. Under the law at the time, each voter cast two votes for representative, at least one of whom had to be from a different county. Georgia Georgia had a mixed at-large/district system for the 1st Congress. Representatives were elected at-large, but for three district-based seats. Maryland Maryland had a mixed district/at-large system similar to Georgia's. Under Maryland law, "candidates were elected at-large but had to be residents of a specific district with the statewide vote determining winners from each district." Massachusetts Massachusetts required a majority vote, necessitating additional votes if no one won a majority. This was necessary in 4 of the districts. In the fourth district, In the fifth district, In the eighth district, New Hampshire New Hampshire law required a winning candidate to receive votes from a majority of voters (16.7% of votes). No candidate won such a majority on the first ballot, so a second ballot was held February 2, 1789. New Jersey The election of all four representatives was contested, but the records that explained the precise grounds on which the election was contested have been lost due to the burning of Washington in the War of 1812. It is known to have related to questions of regularity and procedure. All four representatives' elections were ruled valid. New York New York held elections to the 1st Congress on March 3 and 4, 1789. At the time, districts were unnumbered. They are retroactively numbered in this section. North Carolina North Carolina ratified the Constitution late and thus elected representatives to the 1st Congress in 1790. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania held elections to the 1st Congress on November 26, 1788. For this first election (and again in 1792 election for