A total of 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidential election this November and there are 548 up for grabs. Currently Obama has about 172 votes on lock thanks to strong followings in California (55), Illinois (21), New York (31) and more. However, McCain is close behind him with 148 votes on lock courtesy of his home state Arizona (10), Texas (34), Mississippi (6), Alabama (9), Georgia (15) and pretty much the whole damn south.
However, another 79 votes are going to likely be McCain votes in certain states that are leaning toward him, but not exactly solid. Another 66 electoral votes are expected to be for Obama but the election is not locked down in those states either.
What does that mean?
That means that if all of the "locked down" voters and states that are leaning either way, vote as predicted, Obama will get (172 +66=) 238 electoral votes and McCain will get (148+79=) 227. Which puts the election at "two close for comfort" status for me.
Now, as I mentioned before 270 electoral votes are need to win, so even if all these states vote as expected there will be no clear winner without the help of the swing states- states that may vote either way and could effectively swing the election. There's absolutely no clear way to tell which way they'll vote as of now. Those states are Nevada (5), Colorado (9), New Mexico (5), Michigan (17), Ohio (20), Virginia (13), and New Hampshire (4).
These seven swing states collectively hold onto 73 electoral votes and these votes are completely up for grabs. As long as people show up to the polls and vote how they're expected to in all other states, there will most definitely be an election night showdown in these places.
So what does this mean?
It means that if you know someone who lives in one of these battleground swing states you should reach out to them. Take the time out everyday to call a few people (text, aim, or Facebook) that you know to make sure they're registered to vote. Deadlines are approaching. Travel to nearby battleground states to canvass. For people like me, who live in a "Dem. lock state" (California) traveling to a nearby swing state like Nevada may be the best use of your canvassing energy. Just get involved! Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the Democratic bubble and think that there's no way that the other candidate could win. But in fact, McCain could actually win this election because as you know... we live in a red country with only a couple blue bookends.
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