Today each political party has an organization at the local, state, and national level. In a political campaign, each party selects their candidates through primary elections and national conventions. The party’s platform, or statement of principles, is written at the convention. Then, the citizens listen to the candidates and study the issues before voting for the party and candidate of their choice.

There are more than two political parties in America. There have been a number of different “third parties” throughout the years: Greenback, Populist, Progressive, Socialist, Independent, Green, Reform, and others. These people do not agree with the positions of the two major political parties. Not too many years ago, Ross Perot was a candidate of a third party who made a very strong pitch for the presidency, winning almost 20% of the popular vote. No third party has ever won the presidency.

If we had many political parties that were highly active at the same time, it might be difficult to elect a President. With a two-party system, the candidate with the majority of votes is the winner. In politics, majority has a different meaning than in mathematics. In math, a majority is simply more than the others. A political majority means that one single candidate has received more than half of all the votes cast.

Another method of choosing candidates is by plurality. A candidate has a plurality if he or she has more votes than any other candidate. A plurality can be less than a majority if more than two candidates are running. (For example, Candidate A might have 420 votes; Candidate B 320 votes; and Candidate C 310 votes. Candidate A obviously has more votes than each of the other two, but still doesn’t have more than half of all the votes cast.)