My memory is that the whole President-Elect nonsense began with Bill Clinton.
After 12 years of Reagan and Bush, the libs were wetting themselves with glee that a Democrat had finally re-taken the White House and, because they couldn’t wait for him to be inaugurated, they began referring to BJ as President-Elect Clinton.
I just looked it up in 1980-1981 newspaper archives. Reagan was called President-Elect, from Wed Nov 5, 1980 on.
The phrase “President elect” is used in the 20th Amendment, which was ratified in 1933.
So what we’re winners of Presidential elections called before they were inaugurated prior to Clinton?