By: Erin Olson There were mixed results for President Bush over the weekend in E&P's exclusive tracking of seven major newspaper Web sites' electoral-college maps. Bush gained ground at The New York Times but lost some of his lead over Sen. John Kerry at the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. Four sites remain unchanged.
Since Friday, Bush has lost only a little ground, and he now leads Kerry by 198 votes to 188 in the overall average.
At The New York Times, Kerry led Bush 225-213 on Friday. While Kerry lost no votes, he has lost his lead, with Bush pulling ahead 227-225. When the Times designated Colorado and Nevada, previously in the swing-state category, as leaning for Bush, he gained 14 votes. The weekend was a wash at the Times for Kerry, who lost Michigan from leaner to swing state while gaining an equal number of votes when swingers Oregon and Minnesota leaned his way. According to the Times, 86 votes are still up for grabs.
The Los Angeles Times held Kerry's vote count steady at 153 but bumped Bush's votes down from 173 to 158. The 15 votes subtracted from the president's total came from North Carolina, which the L.A. Times, surprisingly, moved back into its toss-up category. The site now counts a massive 227 electoral votes that could go to either candidate.
Meanwhile, USA Today also showed Bush losing some ground. Nevada, which USA Today has counted as a Bush state since last Wednesday, now shows its five votes back in the "closely contested" column, leaving Bush with 216 votes to Kerry's 186.
The four sites that remain unchanged since Friday are the Boston Herald (192-188 for Bush), The Washington Post (208-179 for Bush), the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (222-217 for Bush), and The Philadelphia Inquirer (168-166 for Kerry).
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here