Do you live in Arizona, Georgia, or Michigan? Pennsylvania or Wisconsin? How about Nevada or North Carolina? If you call one of these spots home, you’re in a swing state!

For the most part, each political party already knows which states it will likely win. 

It’s all but certain Democrats will grab California, Illinois, and New York. Republicans are almost sure to nab Tennessee, Kansas, and Alabama. But some states are much harder to predict. 

And when it comes to swing states, the name fits. You can think of each one like a pendulum swinging between two sides: Democrat and Republican. Some election years, the majority will vote for one party. But another year, more votes go the other way. 

These states are also called battleground states. That’s because politicians know the vote could easily tip either way in those states. So they battle hardest for votes in them.

In the last 40 years of elections, candidates have been neck-and-neck in many states. Florida and Nevada have had the tightest races in recent elections. And when a state’s electoral votes are in the balance—as they are in each swing state—every citizen’s vote really counts!