After it came out in 1611, the KJV was questioned by a number of believers including Baptists, especially concerning several verses where it was claimed to have renderings that were the result of Episcopal bias.
One example involves Acts 14:23. One place where the Church of England translators reveal their bias for their Episcopal church government is in Acts 14:23 where either the KJV translators, Bancroft, or another prelate omitted the words "by election" found in Tyndale's New Testament, Coverdale's Bible, Matthew's Bible, Great Bible, Taverner's Bible, Geneva Bible, and Bishops' Bible ("ordained them elders by election").
The rest of the post has been eliminated for the sake of space. This argument is something I had not heard of and find interesting. First it is important to note that the KJV was not an Episcopal Bible. The Church of England did not sanction nor order the translation of the KJV. It was brought to the Hampton Court Conference by the Puritans (who also participated in the translation) who had four issues they wanted addressed that dealt with abuses in the Church of England. Thus to say that the Episcopal Church made the translation is a misnomer and historically inaccurate. As concerning the issue at hand it is the translation of the word χειροτονησαντες. As you have noted the various English translations prior to the KJV translate the word “ordained them elders by election” (with some variation). The word has the meaning according to Strong’s Concordance as “to be a hand-reacher or voter (by raising the hand), i.e. (genitive) to select or appoint :- choose, ordain.” The idea of “raising the hand” is incorporated in the idea of “by election.” If you examine the word in Greek usage it would serve us to see what the Greek lovers prefer, Kittle’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) (which I do not), but good for the sake of argument. It says, “Raising the hand to express agreement in a vote...[i.e.] he voted for my views” (Electronic edition PC Study Bible V5). The conclusion of the definition is stated by the author of the article in the TDNT, E. Lohse, who says, “In Acts 14:23 the reference is not to election by the congregation. The presbyters are nominated by Paul and Barnabas and then with prayer and fasting they are instituted into their offices…” (Ibid). The word carries the idea of raising the hand to show support for the selection or even something akin to a hand shake. Not a vote to make the selection. Maybe the King James translators were accurate to eliminate the word “by election.” Maybe they had read the rest of the New Testament and knew the theology of Paul better than some today.
Second, if the KJV is a “bad” translation (and I do not accept this) then all the “new translations” are bad as well. All of them I examined, NIV, NASB, NASB77, ASV, NKJV, and RSV, have the statement “appointed elders.” The only difference is the KJV uses "ordain" and the new translations use "appointed." The phrase "by election" has been eliminated. It seems that the objection historically was an attempt by objectors to impugn the new Bible, the Authorized Version, the KJV. This seems to be the procedure of those who dislike the KJV, even today.