Each American state is allocated a certain number of so-called ‘electoral college’ votes based partly on population. Hence, large populous states like California and Texas have 54 and 50 electoral college votes respectively while states like Delaware, Alaska. Vermont and Wyoming have just three each.
There is a total of 538 up for grabs across the country, and the winner is the candidate that wins 270 or more.
The key point is this: It’s a winner-takes-all rule – apart from in two states. This means whichever candidate wins the highest number of votes in a state ends up being awarded all of the state’s electoral college votes. However, most states lean heavily towards one party or the other, so the focus is usually on those states where either of Trump or Biden could win.
These are known as the ‘swing states’ or ‘battleground states. They will effectively decide the election. Seven swing states to look out for are Pennsylvania (19 Electoral College votes), North Carolina (16), Michigan (15), Wisconsin (10), Georgia (16), Nevada (6) and Arizona (11).
So, these key swing states collectively have 93 precious votes tied up with them – one third of the votes required to get to the magical winning post number of 270.
So, who currently holds which state? And how have the states changed political allegiance over the years?
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Credit: Daily Kos Elections. See their website at: dailykosdata.com,
Featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore