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In 1796 the Presidential Electors in the state of New York were appointed by the state legislature which was dominated by the Federalist party and all 12 of their electoral votes to John Adams.
In the election of 1800 the Presidential Electors from New York were elected by the people in their Congressional Districts all 12 of the Electros cast their votes for Thomas Jefferson giving him a victory margin by a margin of 71 to 68.
Having lost their dominance in the New York's state legislatur, Alexander Hamilton anticipated Jefferson would win all of the state's 12 electoral votes so he tried to convince the Governor John Jay of New York to change their method of allocating their electoral votes. Had he been successful it was very likely that Adams would won at least 5 votes. This would have increased Adams total from 65 to 70 and reduced Jefferson's total from 71 to 68
Thomas Jefferson won 20 out of 21 electoral votes in his home state of Virginia, but if the state did not change its method of allocating electoral votes to a single distirct mode it was very likely that John Adams would have been the choice in at least 5 Congressional Districts,
If Virginia had not switched their system of choosing electors, Adams would have received at leas votes 5 of the 21and given Adams a victory by a margin 70 to 66.
If New York had switched to the district model of and Virginia had not switched to the Winner Take All system, John Adams would have won the election by margin of 75 to 63
Philosophically Hamilton and Madison opposed the statewide winner take all model of allocating their state's electoral votes but realized that states that used the Winner Take All system would give their state a greater voice in the election of the President.
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