While it ' s true that states are allowed to decide how to divide their electors , it ' s also technically true that we ' re allowed to have more than two viable parties . The electoral college system leads to winnertakesall allocation similar to how firstpastthepost leads to a twoparty system . If a state chooses to do proportional representation , they have doomed themselves to irrelevance no matter how much campaigning they do , a candidate only stands to flip a couple electors . You could set up the electoral college a hundred times , and you ' d almost always end up with most of the states doing winnertakesall . Therefore , it is actually reasonable to say it is a result of the electoral college system .