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As many states are dominated by one party or the other (examples are California and New York for the Democrats and Texas for the Republicans), purple states are the ones in which candidates expend disproportionate resources as they are the only ones where a party is not guaranteed virtual success.

As many states are dominated by one party or the other (examples are California and New York for the Democrats and Texas for the Republicans), purple states are the ones in which candidates expend disproportionate resources as they are the only ones where a party is not guaranteed virtual success.

Examples of "purple" states include [[Florida]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Ohio]].<ref>http://www.wordspy.com/words/purplestate.asp</ref>  Florida is usually the most watched due to the 2000 Presidential Election (where a mere 537 votes made all the difference in electing George W. Bush), and due to Presidential candidates being able to campaign in mild weather during the otherwise frigid fall season.

Examples of "purple" states include [[Florida]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Ohio]].<ref>http://www.wordspy.com/words/purplestate.asp</ref>  Florida is usually the most important of the battleground states because it has the largest number of electoral votes, due to the fact George W. Bush won there in the [[2000 Presidential Election]] by a mere 537 votes, and due to the fact Presidential candidates can campaign in the state's mild weather during the otherwise frigid fall season. Ohio is seen as the bellweather state<ref>[https://www.270towin.com/states/Ohio 270toWin Ohio election history]</ref> because winning the state is crucial to winning 270 electoral votes.

"Purple" refers to the tradition of classifying states as "[[Red state|Red]]" or "[[Blue state|Blue]]", responding to an [[Electoral College]] vote of [[Republican Party|Republican]] and [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] presidential candidate, respectively.<ref>It should be noted that the use of "red" to denote a relatively conservative party, and blue a relatively liberal one, is the exact opposite of the color scheme used in European countries, where red denotes a left-leaning party and blue a right-leaning one.</ref> In this scheme, very close states are colored purple until the final vote tally is finished. In reality, most states are "purple" if viewed on a per-county basis.<ref>[http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/ Purple states of America] - a county by county breakdown of presidential elections since 1960.</ref>

"Purple" refers to the tradition of classifying states as "[[Red state|Red]]" or "[[Blue state|Blue]]", responding to an [[Electoral College]] vote of [[Republican Party|Republican]] and [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] presidential candidate, respectively.<ref>It should be noted that the use of "red" to denote a relatively conservative party, and blue a relatively liberal one, is the exact opposite of the color scheme used in European countries, where red denotes a left-leaning party and blue a right-leaning one.</ref> In this scheme, very close states are colored purple until the final vote tally is finished. In reality, most states are "purple" if viewed on a per-county basis.<ref>[http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/ Purple states of America] - a county by county breakdown of presidential elections since 1960.</ref>