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California is generally considered one of the most reliable Democratic Party states. It has given its electoral votes to the Democratic candidate in the last five presidential elections and has Democratic Party majorities in both houses of the state legislature. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by over 2 million voters.

However, California hasn’t always been solidly controlled by the Democrats. Republican candidates won all but one of the presidential elections from 1952 through 1988. With registered independents on the rise, changing issues, and shifting demographics, is this the year for a surprising change? Learn more about the issues unique to the Golden State in the California Consensus game in Play the Election.

We're honored to have ChannelOne News as a partner on Play the Election.  While there are two weeks remaining until the 2012 Presidential Election, ChannelOne's quadrennial OneVote Mock Election is happening this week! The OneVote Mock Election is the largest mock election for teens in the country.  What's more, the OneVote Mock Election results have been in line with results of the corresponding Presidential Election every time!  Students, classrooms and entire schools are welcome to participate.

Voting in the  Mock Election is super simple, and takes just a minute.  To participate, visit http://onevote.channelone.com/.

North Carolina: The Tar Heel State is known for its thriving basketball rivalries, but it has become a major player in presidential elections in recent years. Home to the second-closest race in the 2008 election, Democrat Barack Obama flipped this largely-Republican state to the Democrats by only 14,000 votes, winning 49.7% of the vote over Republican John McCain’s 49.4%.

Obama was aided by a large jump in turnout in North Carolina, especially among African-Americans and young voters, and it remains to be seen whether or not these new voters will show up in 2012 as well, or switch over to Obama’s Republican rival, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. The Democratic Party continues to court North Carolina voters. For example, the Democratic National Convention was held in Charlotte.  However, many Republicans remain confident that they can regain their dominance over the state’s 15 electoral votes. Will Mitt Romney bring North Carolina back into the Republican fold, or will Barack Obama engineer another surprise in the 2012 election?

Explore the complexity of North Carolina's voter population with your students in Play the Election's North Carolina Game, available now.

Florida gained two Electoral College votes during the 2010 Census for a total of 29. Only California (55), Texas (38), and New York (29) have as many or more votes, and those states already have solid political majorities in place. With so many votes at stake,both candidates consider Florida a must-win state.

Florida has a history of close elections. President Barack Obama won the state by only 2.5%in the 2008 presidential election. And in the 2000 election, President George W. Bush won Florida by only 537 votes, triggering a recount and the Supreme Court case that ultimately decided that Bush was the winner of the election. If the 2012 race is close, efforts to reform voting rights could decide the election.

Florida was hit hard by the recession. Can Romney convince voters that he can revive the state’s housing market and lower its unemployment rate? Will President Obama be able to muster the same enthusiasm among young voters that he did in 2008? And will the state’s large Hispanic population vote with the Democrats or with the Republicans over issues such as immigration reform and voter’s rights? Discuss all of these issues in more in the Florida Focus Game on Play the Election