Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are heading into Election Day with razor-thin margins separating them within the handful of states that can finally resolve the winner.
The 2024 election map bears some similarities to the panorama that Trump encountered in 2020, when he was defending the White Home from a problem by Joe Biden.
Trump is hoping to win again states that he captured in 2016, when he punctured the Democratic “blue wall” en path to the presidency. Harris is hoping to retain the states that Mr. Biden gained, which might give her a snug victory within the Electoral Faculty.
The 2020 Electoral Faculty map
In 2020, Mr. Biden gained 81,284,666 votes nationwide, in comparison with Trump’s 74,224,319.
However the presidency is gained within the Electoral Faculty, not the favored vote. Mr. Biden bested Trump by that measure, too, profitable 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. A majority within the Electoral Faculty — 270 votes — is required to win the White Home.
The Biden marketing campaign constructed a coalition that helped him recapture once-reliable blue states that Trump had flipped in 2016, returning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to the Democratic column. He additionally picked up Arizona and Georgia to solidify his victory.
This map exhibits the states that Trump and Mr. Biden gained in 2020:
For 2024, CBS Information considers seven states to be battleground states that can largely resolve the race. These states are:
- Arizona
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes make it the greatest prize of the night time — a victory there makes profitable the mandatory 270 electoral votes a lot simpler for both candidate.
How the electoral map has modified since 2020
The Electoral Faculty votes are apportioned primarily based on every state’s illustration in Congress. Each state will get at the least three votes — one for every of their two senators, and one for every consultant within the Home. (This offers smaller states outsized affect on the outcome, since a state like Wyoming or Vermont is assured extra electoral votes than it could obtain in the event that they have been divided strictly by inhabitants.) The District of Columbia additionally will get three votes, though residents don’t have any voting members in Congress.
The electoral votes are reapportioned each 10 years as states acquire or lose Home seats primarily based on their fluctuating populations. These determinations are made by the outcomes of the U.S. Census. If a state’s inhabitants elevated relative to different states, it would acquire a seat or two. If its inhabitants decreased, a seat may go elsewhere.
Six states gained electoral votes within the 2024 race: Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon gained one every, and Texas gained two. Conversely, seven states misplaced a vote: California, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Here’s a have a look at the place states have gained and misplaced Electoral Faculty votes since 2020:
