Written by Abdul Aziz Al Subhi
It is certainly true that in the USA there are certain states which one can call in advance which party or candidate they will elect.
Conversely, there are a few states that are not as obvious which candidate they are going to support. Politically these states are known as “swing states”.
The US electoral system is based on the principle of Electoral College points. Each candidate can earn points from individual states. The population of each state mainly determines how many points the state provides but it is not consistent.
If the candidate won the majority of votes in certain state that means he will get all the allotted points. Then, according to the total points collected by candidates the winner is crowned.
Currently, not all the 50 states in the USA decisively choose whether to elect the Republican or Democrat candidate. Therefore, each candidate attempts to persuade them to support his presidential campaign.
Presently, the number of American voters in the presidential election is one hundred million voters, but despite this fact, both candidates hanker to ensure the votes of so-called the swing states.
The sum of all the points is 538 including all states. Principally, each candidate has to gain 270 points as a condition to win the election.
In the current presidential election, there are eight swing states as following: New Hampshire which has four votes, Virginia which has 13, North Carolina; which has which seems to be a battleground for Obama according to the data provided by polls, Ohio yields 18 votes for the winner; no Republican candidate has won the Ohio vote and failed to win the election, Florida which is considered as the most vital swing state has 29 votes, Colorado has nine votes, and Nevada and Iowa both have six votes.
