Skip to main content

My Final Electoral College Update (and prediction)

We're now less than 24 hours away from the first state polls closing. I was going to post this tomorrow morning, but will have more to do tomorrow than I had initially anticipated, so I thought I'd release this tonight instead. As stated in my last such update, I will order the states for each candidate from the state they're most likely to win to the state which is most likely to wind up being a toss-up.


Solid Obama - all of these states (and D.C.) should go Obama's direction by at the very least, the upper single digits and in many cases, well over 10 points. I don't see any way that Romney wins any of these 17 states (including D.C.).
1. Washington, D.C.: 3 electoral votes (3 overall)
2. Hawaii: 4 (7)
3. Vermont: 3 (10)
4. New York: 29 (39)
5. Illinois: 20 (59)
6. Maryland: 10 (69)
7. Delaware: 3 (72)
8. Rhode Island: 4 (76)
9. California: 55 (131)
10. Massachusetts: 11 (142)
11. Washington: 12 (154)
12. Maine: 4 (158)
13. New Jersey: 14 (172)
14. Connecticut: 7 (179)

Strong Lean Obama - These states should go to Obama by between 5 and 10 points. If Romney wins any of them, then Obama will likely be in a world of trouble.

15. New Mexico: 5 (184)
16. Oregon: 7 (191)
17. Minnesota: 10 (201)
18. Michigan: 16 (217)

Lean Obama - The following states could move to toss-up status if Romney improves in the polling there. On the other side of things, if Obama improves by a couple points, these states could move from lean Obama to strong lean or even solid Obama. At the current time, however, I see Obama winning the following states by between 3 and 9 points. He could potentially lose a couple of these states and still earn 270 electoral votes.
19. Wisconsin: 10 (227)
20. Nevada: 6 (233)
21. Pennsylvania: 20 (253)
22. New Hampshire: 4 (257)

Slight Lean Obama - These four states are extremely close to being labeled as toss-ups. However, most recent polls have the President leading Romney by between 1 and 4 points. At this time, I see him winning these four states by that very margin - between 1 and 4 points. None of these states are vital for him to attain 270 electoral votes. However, if he loses 2-3 states from the "Lean Obama" category, he will need one to three of these to move past 270 electoral votes.
23. Ohio: 18 (275)
24. Iowa: 6 (281)
25. Virginia: 13 (294)
26. Colorado: 9 (303)

Solid Romney - Romney has little to no chance at losing these states. He should win these states by at least the high single ditgits.
1. Utah: 6 (6)
2. Wyoming: 3 (9)
3. Oklahoma: 7 (16)
4. Idaho: 4 (20)
5. Alabama: 9 (29)
6. Kansas: 6 (35)
7. Kentucky: 8 (43)
8. Arkansas: 6 (49)
9. West Virginia: 5 (54)
10. Nebraska: 5 (59)
11. Alaska: 3 (62)
12. Louisiana: 8 (70)
13. South Dakota: 3 (73)
14. North Dakota: 3 (76)
15. Tennessee: 11 (87)
16. Mississippi: 6 (93)
17. South Carolina: 9 (102)
18. Texas: 38 (140)

Strong Lean Romney - If Obama has a great showing in any of these states, there's an outside chance he could make things interesting. The chances of that occurring is not very likely, however. If Obama were to win any of these three states, the election would be in the bag for him. Romney should win these states by between 5 and 10 points.
19. Indiana: 11 (151)
20. Georgia: 16 (167)
21. Montana: 3 (170)

Lean Romney - Most polls have Romney up in these two states by the high single digits, but once in a while a poll will come out where he only leads by 4-5. It's unlikely that Obama wins either state, but I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility either. Romney should win by between 3 and 9 points.
22. Missouri: 10 (180)
23. Arizona: 11 (191)

Slight Lean Romney - Obama's early-voting numbers have been stellar in North Carolina, which has more than made up for Romney's absentee-ballot advantage. I still give Romney a slight edge there and expect him to win by between 1 and 4 points. Arizona is a mystery state. Not many saw it as a potential battleground until a couple recent polls have the president leading Romney in the state. Romney still has the advantage there, I believe, but if the Hispanic turnout is higher than anticipated, Arizona could be the steal of the election for the President and potentially place him over the 270 mark as far as electoral votes go.
24. North Carolina: 15 (206)

Toss-ups - I've now reached the point where I see Florida as a 50-50 toss-up state. I had previously labeled it "toss-up - advantage Romney," but due to multiple polls released from the sunshine state in recent days showing the two candidates in a virtual lock with one another, I now believe one could flip a coin on this state. We'll see if that changes any in my final update.
1. Florida (29)

Solid Obama: 179 electoral votes (no change)
Strong Lean Obama: 38 electoral votes (no change - 217 total)
Lean Obama: 40 electoral votes (up from 36 electoral votes - 257 total)
Slight Lean Obama: 46 electoral votes (down from 50 electoral votes - 303 total)

Solid Romney: 140 electoral votes (no change)
Strong Lean Romney: 30 electoral votes (no change - 170 total)
Lean Romney: 21 electoral votes (no change - 191 total)
Slight Lean Romney: 15 electoral votes (no change - 206 total)

Toss-ups: 29 electoral votes (no change)

The only change I made was move New Hampshire from slight lean Obama to lean Obama. Other than that, I haven't seen any changes worth making from the poll numbers I've seen the past few days.

Solid/Strong Lean/Lean Obama: 257 electoral votes

Solid/Strong Lean/Lean Romney: 191 electoral votes

When slight leaners are included, Obama comes away with 303 electoral votes compared to 206 for Romney.

I see Florida as a toss-up, but for my final prediction, I will say that it goes to Romney.

My final prediction for tomorrow's election is: Obama - 303 electoral votes and Romney - 235 electoral votes

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...

Face guarding is legal in college football and the NFL

I just wanted to remind fans and announcers especially, that face guarding is legal in both college football and the NFL. It all comes down to contact. So long as a defender doesn't make contact with an intended receiver, he doesn't have to turn around to play the ball. I can't tell you how many times every week I hear announcers talk about face guarding being a penalty. It's not. I even heard one announcer yesterday state, "If the defender doesn't turn around and play the ball, the ref will call pass interference every time." That's simply not true. Courtesy of referee Bill LeMonnier, he says this with regard to the rule at the college level (answered on 8/12/13): "NCAA rules on pass interference require the face guarding to have contact to be a foul. No contact, no foul by NCAA rules." In the NFL rule book, this is written:  "Actions that constitute defensive pass interference include but are not limited to: (a) Contact by a ...