Attention on presidential swing states has only intensified as Election Day creeps closer, and with just one week until the country's next president is chosen, the intense curiosity on battleground states has reached a fever pitch.

According to The Huffington Post's Electoral College map projection, which is based on an analysis of various nationwide and state by state polling data, shows five states in the toss up pile as of Tuesday: Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.

Those states represent a total of 73 electoral votes - a hefty sum considering each candidate needs a total of 270 electoral votes to successfully win the election. That sum would be incredibly valuable to either candidate, based on The Huffington Post's current projection, which has President Barack Obama at 259 electoral votes and Mitt Romney at 206 votes.

Perhaps the most talked about swing state this election cycle has been Ohio.

Even The New York Times has identified Ohio as a critical part of this campaign. In his Five Thirty Eight politics blog, Times columnist Nate Silver wrote that the Times has been running thousands of Electoral College simulations every day, and 95 percent of the time, the candidate who wins Ohio wins the entire election.

"Whether you call Ohio a 'must-win' is a matter of semantics, but its essential role in the Electoral College should not be hard to grasp," Silver wrote.

Ohio offers 18 electoral votes to whichever candidate carries the state on Election Day.

According to The Huffington Post's data analysis, President Barack Obama is enjoying a slight lead in Ohio. The president is polling at 49 percent in the Buckeye State, while his Republican challenger Mitt Romney is polling at 46 percent.

But conflicting data from national polling firm Rasmussen shows Romney, not Obama, in the lead in Ohio. Rasmussen's Ohio poll shows the GOP nominee at 50 percent, while Obama is behind at 48 percent.

Tags
Barack Obama, Mitt romney, Ohio, Presidential election 2012