The US presidential election will take place in less than a month on November 5, and there are still some states that don’t have a clear political leaning.
In the intense run-up to voting, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be doing everything in their power to make sure these states – swing states – can be won over.
A swing state, also called a battleground state, toss-up state, or purple state, is any region that could potentially be won by either Democrats (Harris) or Republicans (Trump) in a statewide vote.
It’s most commonly used in reference to presidential elections due to shifts in voter preference. These hotly-contested states become the primary focus of both major-party campaigns, especially when the race is too close to call.
According to the website 270toWin, which tracks electoral votes and was last updated on October 8, there are seven swing states in which it’s all to play for.
The seven swing states are: Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
These are incredibly important because they all use a “winner takes all” approach to allocating votes in a presidential election. The only two states that don’t use this system are Nebraska and Maine.
This means that all the swing states will allocate all of their delegates to one candidate to vote in the Electoral College. Similarly to MPs in the UK, delegates are people elected to represent their party in the House of Representatives.
This system in the US is also based on population – the largest states, such as Texas and California, carry the most weight in the Electoral College because they get more votes, making them more important to win over.
A candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes to win, and California alone contains 54, so winning there already puts them well on their way to presidential victory.
This is a similar system to MPs winning seats in the UK and needing enough of them (326) to win a majority in the House of Commons.
The Electoral College is ultimately the deciding factor in who wins the election, and just because a candidate wins more votes, doesn’t mean they’ll win the presidency.
For example, Hillary Clinton got more votes than Trump in 2016, but still lost the election because she did not secure enough Electoral College votes.
On the flip side, “safe states”, also labelled “red states” for Republicans and “blue states” for Democrats, are those which consistently favour one party.
In these states, a candidate’s inherent support base makes up a substantial amount of the electorate without much campaigning or financial efforts.
For the Republicans, these include: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota. For the Democrats, these include: California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and New York.
