The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Any American political strategist or reporter -- I’ve been one for more than four decades -- loves the map: That’s the electoral map that decides the presidential election every four years.

Each of the 50 states is awarded electors based on its members of Congress, essentially by population; Washington, D.C., for example, gets three votes. In almost all states it’s a winner-take-all system; there are 538 votes nationally, it takes 270 to win.

For about two thirds of the states, including the biggest, California and Texas, the outcome is a near-certainty. Thus the battle is over no mor...