From Deleting Elect in the Bible:

So, with all 61 occasions of EKLEKTOS as within the category of “best, top quality, excellent”, a reasonable view can be seen that the LXX translators saw EKLEKTOS and thus BACHIR as about excellence: an indicator of high quality. As a result of the above observations there is no reasonable pointer to any occasion of EKLEKTOS in the LXX as meaning other than excellence. [61 + 13 = 74: 100%]

And, since we know the early Church all spoke Greek and read the LXX as their OT Scripture, let alone the Gk. NT documents for the first three centuries of its existence – the Nicea Ecumenical Council of 325AD being all recorded in Gk. an excellent pointer to that – then, we can reasonably see that the idea of (let alone the word) “elect” was never in their view, in any of the passages where it is found today in the English bibles: The “excellent” were in view.