Swing State/Battleground State: in Presidential Elections, States That Do Not Consistently Vote for Either the Democratic Or Republican Presidential Candidate

Home , Swing state

20th/Raffel The Electoral College (as of the 2010 Census) # # # STATE VOTES STATE VOTES STATE VOTES Alabama 9 Kentucky 8 North Dakota 3 Alaska 3 Louisiana 8 Ohio* 18 Arizona 11 Maine 4 Oklahoma 7 Arkansas 6 Maryland 10 Oregon 7 California 55 Massachusetts 11 Pennsylvania 20 Colorado* 9 Michigan 16 Rhode Island 4 Connecticut 7 Minnesota 10 South Carolina 9 Delaware 3 Mississippi 6 South Dakota 3 District of 3 Missouri 10 Tennessee 11 Columbia Florida* 29 Montana 3 Texas 38 Georgia 16 Nebraska 5 Utah 6 Hawaii 4 Nevada* 6 Vermont 3 Idaho 4 New 4 Virginia* 13 Hampshire* Illinois 20 New Jersey 14 Washington 12 Indiana* 11 New Mexico 5 West Virginia 5 Iowa* 6 New York 29 Wisconsin* 10 Kansas 6 North 15 Wyoming 3 Carolina*

From the Chart:

1. Which state has the most electoral votes? How many?

2. Identify the states that have just three votes.

3. How many votes does Massachusetts have?

From the Reading (use a separate sheet of paper): 4. What is the difference between the popular vote and the electoral vote? 5. How do most states award their electoral votes? 6. What is a major potential problem with the Electoral College?

Swing State/Battleground State: In Presidential elections, states that do not consistently vote for either the Democratic or Republican Presidential candidate. In the 2012 election, likely swing states are noted in bold italic with an *.

Florida Votes in 2000:

• Gore: 2,912,253 votes; Bush: 2,912,790 votes • Bush wins Florida’s 27 electoral votes (and the Presidency), even though Gore had more than 540,000 popular votes.

Ohio Votes in 2004:

• 2,859,768 for Bush; 2,741,167 for Kerry • So, if approximately 60,000 votes swung to Kerry, Kerry would have won Ohio (20 electoral votes) and the Presidential election even though Bush clearly won the popular vote.

State Representation in the Electoral College: Wyoming California Population (2010 Census) 563,626 37,253,956 Electoral Votes 3 55 One Electoral Vote for: 187,875 people 677,345 people

Sources: http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/ (Dave Leip) http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html