Electoral College Map 2012: Obama Leads Romney By 86 Votes, Latest Data Shows
The 2012 presidential campaign has officially reached its end, and Americans across the country are heading to the polls today to elect either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney as the next president of the United States.
The campaigning may be over, but the country won't have a winner until late this evening, and until then political pundits will be working overtime to successfully predict the outcome of today's election.
Most nationwide presidential polls have the candidates in a dead heat or Romney with a slight advantage, but the forecast that counts — the Electoral College map — gives a firm edge to Obama.
A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. According to The Huffington Post's electoral map projection, which is based on analysis of weeks worth of national and state by state polls, a total of 277 electoral votes are safely leaning Obama's way. That would be enough to send the incumbent into the margin of victory and win another four years in the White House.
Romney lags behind the president by 86 electoral votes. The GOP nominee has 191 electoral votes leaning his way as of Tuesday morning, according to The Huffington Post's data.
The election's outcome may come down to a handful of key swing states where the race is still too close to call. Five states remain in the toss up category: Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia.
Those toss up states represent a total of 70 electoral votes, a hefty enough sum to make a true difference in the race depending on which candidate is able to claim them.
The most valuable of those swing states is Florida, which offers a whopping 29 electoral votes to the candidate who can carry the state on Election Day. But the race there will be a tight one, as The Huffington Post shows Obama and Romney in a deadlocked tie, with each candidate polling at 48 percent.
