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The Electoral Race To 270 Votes Is On
When America votes on Nov. 8, delivering the death blow to this fever dream of an election cycle, only one number will matter: 270. That's the minimum number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency, and as always, both campaigns are gaming out the easiest and most plausible path to that number. So are plenty of journalists and casual election watchers. And if you're wondering how many electoral votes each state has, we've got you covered.
Although both campaigns have multiple paths to the presidency — that is, multiple combinations of state wins which would get them to 270 electoral votes that are within the realm of plausibility — Hillary Clinton has much more room for error than Donald Trump. Her sustained polling leads in states like Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, and Virginia have given her a relatively strong firewall, and according to The New York Times, she has more than twice as many paths to 270 as Trump.
There have been some surprising results in statewide polls this cycle. At various points, Clinton has had leads in ostensibly red states like Georgia, Arizona, and, in one recent poll, Alaska. Trump, meanwhile, could conceivably end up losing Utah, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country.
In any event, here's a list of how many electoral votes each state is worth.
- Alabama: 9
- Alaska: 3
- Arizona: 11
- Arkansas: 6
- California: 55
- Colorado: 9
- Connecticut: 7
- Delaware: 3
- Florida: 29
- Georgia: 16
- Hawaii: 4
- Idaho: 4
- Illinois: 20
- Indiana: 11
- Iowa: 6
- Kansas: 6
- Kentucky: 8
- Louisiana: 8
- Maine: 4
- Maryland: 10
- Massachusetts: 11
- Michigan: 16
- Minnesota: 10
- Mississippi: 6
- Missouri: 10
- Montana: 3
- Nebraska: 5
- New Hampshire: 4
- New Jersey: 14
- New Mexico: 5
- New York: 29
- North Carolina: 15
- North Dakota: 3
- Ohio: 18
- Oklahoma: 7
- Oregon: 7
- Pennsylvania: 20
- Rhode Island: 4
- South Carolina: 9
- South Dakota: 3
- Tennessee: 11
- Texas: 38
- Utah: 6
- Vermont: 3
- Virginia: 13
- Washington: 12
- West Virginia: 5
- Wisconsin: 10
- Wyoming: 3
Most states award all of their electoral votes to the winner of their popular vote. However, Maine and Nebraska are exceptions. In both states, the winner of the statewide vote gets three electoral votes, and the winner of each congressional district gets one. This means that it's possible for both states to split their electoral votes between two candidates (which happened in Nebraska in 2008).
The race to 270 is on! And if the polls and forecasters are to be believed, it's a race that Clinton will win.
