As I promised a week ago, I've launched Election Projection's official tracking of the presidential contest between Romney and President Obama, and the first official projections are posted.  Previously, the President enjoyed a substantial lead after the "Tour of the 50 states" yielded my state-by-state preliminary projections.  But the first look at the race using calculations with actual polling numbers reveals a much closer fight.  Obama retains the lead in my initial projections, but by just 6 electoral votes.

Mitt Romney is projected to carry all the states won by John McCain in 2008 - plus Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia - for a total of 266 electoral votes.  That's not quite enough to best President Obama, who is projected to win a total of 272 EVs, but it does set up a race that should be very competitive.  As we watch this competitive race unfold over the next nine months, I hope you'll visit Election Projection often to get an up-to-date outlook from The Blogging Caesar.



Filed under:  2012 Elections  2012 Presidential Election