Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Two Weeks Out: the Electoral Landscape

The Czar has been studying the electoral maps of late, wondering how things are faring. The news is interesting.

Looking at Rasmussen’s state-by-state polling (which is not yet up-to-date), and looking at Real Clear Politics’ averages (which too often include whackadoo outliers that throw off the averages), we are seeing some similarities.

Also, there are a bunch of toss up states, but some trends are developing. If we award to Obama all the states that are trending his way, and award all the states that are trending to Romney, you are still left with Iowa. Iowa is basically at a tie right now. Let us award Iowa to Obama, because we are charitable.

Assuming that the news updates are correct—that Obama is losing Ohio fast (you may yourself have heard that the Obama campaign is starting to look at ways to win without Ohio), the votes might tally up like this:

State
Votes
Romney
Obama
Alabama
9
9
Alaska
3
3
Arizona
11
11
Arkansas
6
6
California
55
55
Colorado
9
9
Connecticut
7
7
Delaware
3
3
Florida
29
29
Georgia
16
16
Hawaii
4
4
Idaho
4
4
Illinois
20
20
Indiana
11
11
Iowa*
6
6
Kansas
6
6
Kentucky
8
8
Louisiana
8
8
Maine
4
4
Maryland
10
10
Massachusetts
11
11
Michigan
16
16
Minnesota
10
10
Mississippi
6
6
Missouri
10
10
Montana
3
3
Nebraska
5
5
Nevada
6
6
New Hampshire
4
4
New Jersey
14
14
New Mexico
5
5
New York
29
29
North Carolina
15
15
North Dakota
3
3
Ohio
18
18
Oklahoma
7
7
Oregon
7
7
Pennsylvania
20
20
Rhode Island
4
4
South Carolina
9
9
South Dakota
3
3
Tennessee
11
11
Texas
38
38
Utah
6
6
Vermont
3
3
Virginia
13
13
Washington
12
12
West Virginia
5
5
Wisconsin
10
10
Wyoming
3
3
Washington, D.C.
3
3
Total electors
538
275
263
*Iowa is presently tied, so we award her to Obama for purposes of analysis.

Romney needs 270 to win. This assumes the following:

Obama wins tossup states Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. He may not: New Hampshire and Iowa could easily swing over to Romney. Indeed, the only certain Obama pick up right now is Michigan: even Pennsylvania might have already tipped into the Romney camp. Stand by.

Romney wins tossup states Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. Ohio is still quite close, but a lot of local polls not reaching the national stage are showing increased support for Romney: he might not only have won Ohio, but may even be distancing.

Some models we have done have Romney already over the 315 vote mark. And our neighbor Borepatch has Romney at 346 with some reasonable guesswork.

We will keep an eye on this.