A fun fact about Ohio

By Richard K. Barry

Everyone talks about the importance of Ohio as a battleground state. It's hard to win the presidency without it, etc., etc. But the fact is that, historically speaking, it is one seriously divided state. 

As Smart Politics reports:

Ohio has been the most politically divided state in the country in presidential elections for the last 184 years -- boasting the lowest average victory margin and the largest number and percentage of races decided by less than five points.

Although most of the projected battleground states in the 2012 election fizzled out and were not nearly the highly competitive races that many media outlets had expected them to be, Ohio, once again, did not disappoint.

Won by Obama by just 2 points (provisional ballots pending), the state was the second most closely-decided in the nation, behind only Florida at 0.9 points.

I leave it to those well-versed in Ohio political history to explain it, but it is a fun little fact.