US Election 2024: What happens if Harris or Trump sweeps all seven swing states? | World News

If Donald Trump or Kamala Harris were to win all seven swing states, the election’s outcome would be anything but close, despite polling predictions suggesting a tight race. A victory across these critical battlegrounds would result in a clear and decisive win, with Trump potentially securing 312 electoral votes or Harris amassing 319.
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This scenario of a full swing-state sweep would replicate some dynamics observed in the 2016 election, where polling errors were widely correlated. In 2016, Trump exceeded expectations across nearly every swing state except Nevada. This underestimation was partly due to pollsters not adjusting results based on education level, a critical predictor that year. Consequently, Trump carried states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, defying forecasts and tilting the election sharply in his favour.
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In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, seven key swing states and their respective electoral votes are:
Pennsylvania: 19 electoral votes
Georgia: 16 electoral votes
North Carolina: 16 electoral votes
Michigan: 15 electoral votes
Arizona: 11 electoral votes
Wisconsin: 10 electoral votes
Nevada: 6 electoral votes
Collectively, these states contribute 93 electoral votes, playing a crucial role in determining the election outcome.
Each swing state falls within a typical polling margin of error, making a sweep possible, especially in such a tightly contested race. Past elections, including 2016 and 2020, showed that polling errors often tend to be correlated across multiple states. This means if the polls are inaccurate in one state, it’s likely they will be similarly off in others. In 2016, for example, Trump was underestimated in almost all swing states, largely because pollsters hadn’t accounted for education as a critical political divide. If a similar polling error occurs this year, it could pave the way for Trump to take six out of the seven swing states, with only Nevada potentially going to Harris. Conversely, if a 2012-style polling error emerges, Harris could claim six swing states, with Arizona as the sole outlier in favour of Trump.

Polling errors can arise for several reasons, including difficulties in reaching certain demographics, respondents being less than candid, or specific methodological choices that skew results. In close races, even small polling errors can lead to significant differences in outcomes. For instance, if a slight polling bias exists in favour of either candidate across all battlegrounds, it would lead to one of them decisively winning these states, leaving the other far behind.
Given the tight race and polling uncertainties, this sweeping outcome isn’t improbable. Polling firms have made changes to avoid repeating past errors, but the adjustments may not be foolproof. There’s also the possibility of “herding,” where pollsters may be aligning their results with others to avoid being outliers, which could mean that some underlying volatility is concealed in the polls.
So, as we await final results, a full sweep of the swing states remains a distinct possibility. A win across these battlegrounds would hand either Trump or Harris a strong electoral majority, pushing the election decisively in one direction. Whether or not the initial polling reflects this, a state-by-state sweep would leave no doubt about the winner, making what seemed like a close race anything but.
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