Voters wait in line to vote Tuesday at Lowrey School in Dearborn, Michigan.

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Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

This piece originally appeared as part of NPR’s live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from the NPR Network, visit our live updates page.

As Americans cast their votes in this historic election, some votes – as usual – matter more than others.

Seven states are widely considered competitive in this election: the “Blue Wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and the Sun Belt states of Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia.

The US does not elect presidents by popular vote, but through the unique electoral college. In the vast majority of states, this means that the winner of a state gets all of that state’s electors, regardless of the margin of their victory.

In practice, this means that voters in these swing states – states where the race between the candidates is very close and can be influenced in some way – have a disproportionate impact on national results.

The list of swing states is far from static: it changes as voting patterns change. For example, Florida was an important swing state for years, but has become increasingly Republican and has lost that status. The same goes for Ohio. Meanwhile, Georgia was once reliably red but now plays for the Democrats.

Stickers sit on a table at a polling place on November 8, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Megan Varner/Getty Images

Read more about the 7 most watched swing states this year: