Today’s CNN headline about the political race was Presidential Race Tight In Florida. The article shows polls in Florida in which Bush seems to have a 3 point lead, but the margin of error is 4 points. The rest of the article tells what may be the real story though. In every other battleground state that polls have been done in, Iowa, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Nevada, Bush had a clear lead, between 5 and 10 points ahead of his challenger, well outside the margin of error. So as far as these five states are concerned, the poll makes it look like 27 electoral votes might be in play, while another 27 are more or less clinched. In the 2000 election, Iowa and Wisconsin went blue with Gore. This year they’re looking red, but all other things remaining the same, Florida could still clinch things in either direction.

For some interesting maps, check out these contiguous cartograms.