In years when a third party is rising in the electoral climate, there is much discussion of whether our electoral college system hampers a three or more party system. Most American voters, while they do have a vague concept of its existence, do not know what the college does. But without an understanding of the electoral system, they do not understand the obstacles faced by third-party candidates or why campaigning is so unevenly distributed throughout our nations.

The electoral college system was set up to safeguard the country against the passions of the average voter. Like the other checks and balances embedded in the Constitution, the electoral college was set up as a reviewer of the popular vote. Article II, Section I of the Constitution lays out the college's perameters: every state is given a slate electors that equal its number of senators plus its number of representatives. Electors are selected in a presidential campaign year, and each state's method is dependent on its laws. In Arizona, the electors are selected by the political parties. Arizona is the only state beside Maryland to use this method of selection, all other states select their electors either by state party political convention, or by their party's central committee. The political party who receives the plurality of the popular vote gets a block of electoral votes, known as the winner take all system. Arizona is on the low end of the spectrum of electoral votes, with 8 electoral votes. The state with the most electoral votes is California, with 54.