US election: Battleground states

Most states have a history of voting for a particular party and the presidential candidates will count on their votes again. This leaves a handful of states where the election will be decided. These are the election battlegrounds.
Presidential elections are run using an electoral college. Each state is given a number of votes based on its population. This means some states are worth much more than others.
For example, California (population 37.7 million) has 55 votes, while a more rural state like Montana (population one million) has only three votes. The presidential candidate who wins in a state wins all that state's college votes.
You need 270 votes to become president.

Click to see party strongholds

Battlegrounds (151 votes) - In these states the race is close enough that either candidate could win. These "purple states" are where the campaigns will focus their time and money.

Colorado, 9 votes

Colorado is, on average, the highest state above sea level, with more than 1,000 Rocky Mountain peaks over 10,000ft high

Colorado, like other western states with growing Hispanic populations, has been trending towards the Democrats in recent years, having previously been regarded as a solidly Republican state. After three presidential elections in a row where Republican candidates won here, in 2008 Barack Obama took the state for the Democrats.

But the state is by no means safe for Democrats, as the Republicans demonstrated in 2010 by picking up two House seats. Only strong challenges that year from third-party candidates prevented them form also winning a Senate seat and the state governorship. Democratic voters are concentrated in the cities of Denver and Boulder, while Republicans dominate rural counties and the Colorado Springs area, which is a bastion of religious and social conservatism. The fast-growing Denver suburbs are a key battleground.

DEMOGRAPHICS

• 70.0%White
• 3.8%Black
• 20.7%Hispanic
• 5.4%Other

ECONOMY

$56,334 median annual income 11.2% poverty rate 8.20% unemployment rate

HOW CLOSE WAS IT LAST TIME?

• 8.4%
  2000republican win
• 4.7%
  2004republican win
• 8.9%
  2008democrat win

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*Except for Nebraska and Maine, which divide their votes based on the winners in congressional districts as well as the statewide vote.