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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Mar 21, 2008, at 12:53 PM, Marie McHarry wrote:
> The Founding Fathers didn't want political parties, so they set up a
> system that assumed there would be none. Parties developed
> nonetheless, and the way our votes are counted ensures that we will
> have a two party system.

Yeah, they were certainly not omniscient. This from Wikipedia:

Many of America's Founding Fathers hated the thought of political  
parties. They were sure quarreling factions would be more interested  
in contending with each other than in working for the common good.  
They wanted individual citizens to vote for individual candidates,  
without the interference of organized groups — but this was not to be.
By the 1790s, different views of the new country's proper course had  
already developed, and those who held these opposing views tried to  
win support for their cause by banding together. The followers of  
Alexander Hamilton, the Hamiltonian faction, took up the name  
"Federalist"; they favored a strong central government that would  
support the interests of commerce and industry. The followers ofThomas  
Jefferson, the Jeffersonians and then the "Anti-Federalists," took up  
the name "Democratic-Republicans" they preferred a decentralized  
agrarian republic in which the federal government had limited power.  
By 1828, the Federalists had disappeared as an organization, replaced  
by the Whigs, brought to life in opposition to the election that year  
of President Andrew Jackson. Jackson's presidency split the Democratic- 
Republican party: Jacksonians became the Democratic Party and those  
following the leadership of John Quincy Adams became the "National  
Republicans." The two-party system, still in existence today, was  
born. (Note: The National Republicans of John Quincy Adams is not the  
same party as today's Republican Party.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_United_States#Political_parties