Presidential Election -- North Dakota

Electoral votes: 3

2004 result: Bush 63%, Kerry 35%

2000 result: Bush 61%, Gore 33%

Most recent Democratic win (1964): Johnson 58%, Goldwater 42%

African American percentage: 0.8% (national average is 12.8%)

Link to polls in Real Clear Politics

McCain has double-digit leads in the most recent of those polls. Might that be a Sarah Palin effect?

Some projections have labeled this state as only "leaning" to McCain. But an Obama victory seems unlikely (but can't be ruled out).

I've written this week about the string of close elections that seems to be continuing. One implication of that is that we pay more attention to three-electoral-vote states such as North Dakota, than we usually would.