How did us citizens vote for the president the first time?

The general population of registered voters in the United States have never been allowed to directly elect the U. S. President or Vice President. However, by around 1832, every state had switched from the state legislature choosing its electors to a popular vote method of selection. There have been only a small handful of exceptions since then when a state's legislature had to choose their electors because they didn't have either the time or the money for a general election.