One of my daily must-checks on the Internet is www.electoral-vote.com, to which I got hooked during the 2004 presidential race. The site updates daily with the latest state-by-state polls to get a snapshot of where the electoral college vote stands at the moment. The site’s methods aren’t perfect, but it’s far more useful than CNN et al. telling us overall national percentages, which of course have nothing to do with how our president is actually elected.
For the past few weeks, the map has looked pretty much like this, and it struck me: My, how far we’ve come as a nation since 1865!
(Key: Dark blue=solid Obama, light blue=weak Obama, white with blue outline=barely Obama, solid white=dead tie; then repeat the same logic with red for McCain)
This article appears in July 18 • 2008.