With the Presidential election coming up in less than two weeks, both candidates are traveling the United States in attempt to persuade citizens to vote for them.

Their focus is not  based on states that tend to vote in one direction or the other, but rather to sway the swing states to vote for them. Swing states are states that may vote either way and are not typically loyal to one party, thus becoming the battleground of the 2012 election.

In this election, there are nine main swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Depending on how they vote, these states can change the entire election.

Many students are well aware of some of the swing states but are surprised when they find out how many swing states there actually are. Junior nursing major Lauren Alves feels that swing states are essential to the election.

“Swing states are important even though we cannot predict the outcome, the swing states make it so anyone can win,” said Alves. “Otherwise if most states voted one way or another it would not be a close race and the election itself would be meaningless.”

Not everyone feels that swing states are beneficial to an election. The idea behind this is that it is not fair that most of the election is determined by a few states. Junior communications and film studies major Laura Picozzi, feels that the system is outdated and needs to change.

“Swing states take away from the election. Candidates spend all their time and money focusing on certain states while the position of the presidency affects many more than just those nine states,” said Picozzi.

While swing states do seem to get more attention it is only because any swing state can make or break an election.

Similar to the controversy from eight years ago when Florida voted Republican and caused a huge issue with confusing voting applications and a recount, many people including Picozzi feel this system needs to be updated so everyone is focused on equally.

It is clear that both President Obama and Governor Romney are going to be spending most of their time in these states in the last stretch of the election.  By following these states and looking for any political favor, we can almost get a glimpse of who might be running  the country for the next four years.