In the very unlikely event that that 2008 Electoral College map turned out like the one above, who would the winner be? Take a guess, then click on the map to get the answer. After that, enjoy the Electoral College quizzes -- I give you the map, you guess the year.
In the very unlikely event that that 2008 Electoral College map turned out like the one above, who would the winner be? Take a guess, then click on the map to get the answer. After that, enjoy the Electoral College quizzes -- I give you the map, you guess the year.
Here's the list from Boots & Sabers:
State |
Electoral Vote Margin |
Flip Year |
Arkansas |
173 |
2120 |
Mississippi |
134 |
2096 |
Kentucky |
168 |
2092 |
Georgia |
265 |
2076 |
Alabama |
152 |
2072 |
Louisiana |
137 |
2068 |
South Carolina |
95 |
2052 |
Tennessee |
125 |
2052 |
D. C. |
32 |
2048 |
Maryland |
107 |
2048 |
Missouri |
115 |
2048 |
North Carolina |
150 |
2048 |
Hawaii |
31 |
2036 |
West Virginia |
32 |
2032 |
Virginia |
54 |
2024 |
Texas |
126 |
2020 |
Delaware |
6 |
2016 |
Washington |
21 |
2012 |
Since 1856, Georgia has sent 265 more Democratic electors than Republican electors to the Electoral College, the most of any state. And little Arkansas (6 electoral votes) would need to vote straight Republican until the year 2120 to flip over to become an All-Time Red State.
See also Which State Is The All-Time Most Republican Red State?
State |
Electoral Vote Margin |
Flip Year |
Maine |
147 |
2152 |
Vermont |
110 |
2152 |
Iowa |
216 |
2128 |
Indiana |
292 |
2112 |
Kansas |
159 |
2112 |
South Dakota |
78 |
2112 |
Nebraska |
106 |
2092 |
New Hampshire |
87 |
2092 |
North Dakota |
62 |
2088 |
Ohio |
404 |
2088 |
Pennsylvania |
440 |
2088 |
Wyoming |
39 |
2060 |
Michigan |
198 |
2052 |
Wisconsin |
110 |
2052 |
Alaska |
30 |
2048 |
Illinois |
227 |
2048 |
Utah |
52 |
2048 |
Colorado |
76 |
2040 |
Idaho |
32 |
2040 |
Montana |
25 |
2040 |
Connecticut |
52 |
2036 |
Oregon |
45 |
2032 |
Arizona |
58 |
2028 |
Massachusetts |
55 |
2024 |
Rhode Island |
17 |
2024 |
Nevada |
17 |
2020 |
Oklahoma |
24 |
2020 |
Florida |
57 |
2016 |
New York |
83 |
2016 |
California |
79 |
2012 |
New Jersey |
23 |
2012 |
Minnesota |
5 |
2008 |
New Mexico |
2 |
2008 |
Since 1856, Pennsylvania has sent 440 more Republican electors than Democratic electors to the Electoral College, the most of any state. But Pennsylvania is a big state. Little-bitty Maine (4 electoral votes) and Vermont (3 electoral votes) would need to vote straight Democratic until the year 2152 to flip over to become an All-Time Blue State. On the other hand, Minnesota and New Mexico could flip to become All-Time Blue States after the next election in 2008.
See also Which State Is The All-Time Most Democratic Blue State?
I went over to Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections and got the Electoral College data for all the elections from 1856 (when the Republican first fielded a candidate) to 2004. Then I put that data into a spreadsheet and added up the votes to see which states were net Republican (red) and which were net Democratic (blue).
A couple of years ago I ran a whole series of these. Pretty simple idea: I give you the electoral college map, you guess the election year. You can browse the entire collection here.
United Van Lines studies this sort of thing (makes sense, eh?) (via J-Walk)
Some excerpts from Peter Blake on the proposal to divide up Colorado's electoral votes:
It's a laughingly transparent Democratic ploy, of course, since it is based on the reasonable assumption that George W. Bush will win in Colorado, where Republicans outnumber Democrats and the polls have the president ahead. Yet John Kerry would probably salvage four of the nine votes.Apportioning votes might not be a bad idea if it were adopted nationwide. But it's been proposed only for Colorado, and what it means is that our state would be virtually ignored by candidates. After all, why court a state if your visit could produce, at best, a one-vote shift in the electoral college?
The initiative has been preponderantly financed by a wealthy Californian named J. Jorge Klor de Alva. Of course he's not trying to do the same thing there, since Kerry is supposed to win California. Why give up, say, 25 of the state's 55 electoral votes to Bush?
A Republican defeats an incumbent Democrat . . . .
How often does a state vote for the Democratic Presidential Candidate? For the Republican? For the winner?
A Republican got re-elected in this one . . . .
From The Green Papers:
The candidate with the highest popular vote tally receives all of the state's electoral votes, with the exception of electoral votes from Maine and Nebraska.In Maine and Nebraska the 2 at-large electoral votes go to the winner of the statewide popular vote. In addition, the presidential candidate with the highest popular vote in each of the state's Congressional Districts wins 1 electoral vote from that particular district. Maine has been doing this since the 1972 presidential election. Nebraska is a newcomer to this "districting" system of allocating electoral votes to the presidential candidates in the November General Election- having had this in place only beginning with the 1996 election.
By the way, a new map will keep being posted through August 12. By then we'll have covered 1856 through 2000. I figure the Whigs and the Federalists can fend for themselves, eh?
Evidently there's a proposal afoot in Colorado to scrap the winner-take-all system normally used to award Electoral Votes, and award one electoral vote per each Congressional District. From the Denver Post, the concept has some interesting ramifications:
If the concept had been applied in 2000, Al Gore would be president of the United States. President Bush received 51 percent of the vote in Colorado, meaning he would have received only four of Colorado's then-eight electoral votes.Bush received a total of 271 Electoral College votes, just one more than needed to be elected. Take away four of his Colorado votes and Gore is president.
However, had the system been in place in California, where Bush collected 42 percent of the vote, the overall Electoral College race would not even have been close. He would have claimed 23 of that state's electoral voters, sending him way over the top.
