Many states have a history of their voters consistently favoring one party, but voters in battleground states, also called swing states, are so evenly divided in their political allegiances that statewide support switches from one party to another. Presidential candidates will focus much of their campaign efforts on winning those states. Swing states in the 2008 election include those that are often political battlegrounds such as Florida, Ohio and New Mexico. However, a new battleground state this year is Virginia, which has supported Republican presidential candidates for decades but has favored Democrats in recent state and local races. North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, and even North Dakota are also being heavily contested in this presidential election. __
