As Election Day creeps closer, both candidates have put an emphasis on visiting so-called battleground states.

These states tend to have split support for Democrat and Republican candidates. In these states, also known as swing or purple states, it is up to a candidate to convince voters that they’re the right pick. This year, these states are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

According to CNN, Republican candidate and current President Donald J. Trump is considerably more focused on voters in these swing states where the outcome may be uncertain for a candidate. Voters in battleground states can expect to have eyes on them as the presidential race intensifies.

Looking back at the 2016 election, 94% of all campaigning took place in 12 states, and two-thirds of the events took place in six states. Candidates weren’t present in any state with just three electoral votes, which undermined how the Electoral College forces candidates to run national campaigns. This fall isn’t any different.

In 2020, since the conclusion of the national party conventions in August, we’ve seen 70% of all campaign events have been held in six states: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, and Minnesota. Almost nine dollars out of every $10 spent on TV in the presidential race is being invested in these states. Democratic candidate Biden has had advantages in five of those states, except for North Carolina. Trump has been spending a lot of time promoting himself in Georgia, Ohio and Iowa, where he won in 2016.

According to an NBC News article, last year, a Republican strategist Justin Clark, was caught on tape saying that Republicans were always “suppressing votes in places,” which he later claimed was in reference to false allegations against the Party as a whole.

Currently, there have already been controversies over fake ballot drop boxes across the country, specifically in California. In Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange County, the Grand Old Party (GOP) has been accused of planting the fake boxes. A Republican official replied that it’s a form of “ballot harvesting,” which is considered legal, so voters that lack transportation or are elderly/disabled can have a third party sign the ballot as a witness. However, the unofficial ballot boxes in California have been unmanned, therefore, the state says it’s not the same as actual ballot harvesting.

As of now, in most election forecasts, Biden is predicted to win. He holds a firm lead in the national poll and in the 8 battleground states; Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.