Tipping-point state

Because electoral votes are awarded to winners of Washington, D.C. and certain congressional districts,[b] it is possible for the tipping-point to be something other than a state.

For example, the projection of Joe Biden to have won the state of Pennsylvania in the 2020 election made him the projected winner of the electoral college, but for Biden the tipping point state of the 2020 election was Wisconsin, which was called for him three days prior.

Obama would still have won a majority of the electoral vote even if he did not win Virginia, Ohio, and Florida, the three states in which he had his smallest margin of victory.

However, if Obama had lost those three states as well as Colorado (where he recorded his fourth-smallest margin of victory), he would not have won a majority of the Electoral College.

This table shows the tipping point state for the winning candidate in each presidential election since 1832, without any reassignment of faithless electors.