By: Erin Olson There was some movement toward John Kerry from George W. Bush today in E&P's exclusive tracking of seven top newspaper sites that are predicting the current electoral college vote.
The presidential race is now virtually deadlocked, with Bush getting an average of 196.6 electoral votes at the 7 sites to 194.4 for Kerry. You can't get much closer than that.
Kerry gained votes at two of the sites today, lost four votes at another, and the rest remained unchanged. Both candidates remain far short of the 270 needed for election.
The Los Angeles Times gave Kerry 15 new votes, with New Jersey now leaning to him, and gave Bush 11, with Missouri leaning to him. Kerry now leads Bush on the L.A. Times map by 185-159, with a huge number of toss-up votes (194).
The most dramatic change was at the Boston Globe site, which yesterday had Bush well ahead but today had him in front by only 192-188. Bush "lost" 21 electoral votes at the Boston site overnight, while Kerry picked up 9.
The New York Times did give Bush a small boost, deducting 4 votes from Kerry, but the president still trails there by 225-213.
The four sites unchanged are The Washington Post (208-179 for Bush), USA Today (216-213 for Bush), the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (222-217 for Bush), and The Philadelphia Inquirer/Knight Ridder (168-166 for Kerry).
The maps all agree on a handful of sites as true swingers: New Mexico, Iowa, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New Hampshire.
After that differences show up. The Los Angeles Times, for example, is the only one that has Louisiana as a toss-up. The Philadephia Inquirer is alone in putting North Carolina in that category. And there's wide disagreement on whether Arizona and Arkansas belong as undecideds.
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