Electoral College Model Predicts Romney Will Win Big in 2012 (And It's Been Right Since 1980)

University of Colorado Professors Ken Bickers and Michael Berry have quite a set of bragging rights up their sleeve - namely, they've devised a mathematical model of the Electoral College that has predicted every Presidential race correctly since Ronald Reagan won the Presidency in 1980.

And despite recent polls showing the presidential race deadlocked both nationally and in key swing states, Bickers and Berry's model shows a race that isn't even close. According to them, not only will Mitt Romney win, but he will win big, taking 320 Electoral Votes to President Obama's 218 - a result almost as decisive as President Obama's win against Senator John McCain in 2008.

The Huffington Post explains how the model works:

To predict the race's outcome, the model uses economic indicators from all 50 states and it shows 320 electoral votes for Romney and 218 for Obama, according to The Associated Press. The model also suggests that Romney will win every state currently considered a swing state which includes Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Colorado.[...]

Berry cautions that just because the model has worked in the past, doesn't mean it will work this time. "As scholars and pundits well know, each election has unique elements that could lead one or more states to behave in ways in a particular election that the model is unable to correctly predict," Berry said in a statement. Some of those factors include the timeframe of the current economic data used in the study (the data used was taken five months before the November election, but Berry and Bickers plan to update it with more current data come September) as well as tight races. States that are very close to a 50-50 split, the authors warn, can fall in an unexpected direction.

Even given the caveats near the end, this is encouraging news for supporters of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, given that it shows a race where the raw economic data appears to favor a Republican win. Granted, the election is still months away, and given that Berry and Bickers plan to update their model later, this forecast could change.

However, if things stay as they are economically, President Obama could be in for a rout come November.