Looking at the electoral maps

Want to see where Barack Obama and Mitt Romney stand in some popular electoral map projections?  Here is a sampling of some the popular ones out there:

• Washington Post -- Obama 237, Romney 191,  Tossup 110
• New York Times -- Obama 217, Romney 206, Tossup 115
• CNN -- Obama 247, Romney 206, Tossup 85
• Real Clear Politics -- Obama 221, Romney 170
• Huffington Post -- Obama 260, Romney 191, Tossup`87
• Sabato -- Obama 217, Romney 191, Tossup 130

In order to win, a candidate must garner at least 270 electoral votes.  Although the maps have recently pushed downward for Pres. Obama, it has not been for any sustained period such that we could call it a trend.

Now, if we average the votes for Obama and Romney, and then take the remainder from all votes subtracted by their sum to get tossups:

Obama:  226 electoral votes
Romney: 193 electoral votes
Undecided:  119 electoral votes

The National Polls website does not allow tossups and comes up with the following projection based on polls and other data:

Obama: 296
Romney: 231

Source: Real Clear Politics