In 2004 they were Red could they be Blue in 2008?

Colorado

Mail-in voter ballots. Nearly half the state of Colorado's registered voters are calling in for mail-in voter ballots.The NY Times wrote an interesting article on this topic. In recent years, mail-in voting was was done mainly by people who lived in rural areas. But this year it's said to be different, Sen. Barack Obama and his campaign staff made the push for mail-in voting ballots first.Their motive is obvious, to get a higher voter turn out. There have been two recent statewide polls that suggested a dead heat in Colorado. Both the latest CNN/Time poll and one conducted by Suffolk University in Boston give Sen. Obama a four-point advantage, an edge that falls within each poll’s margin of sampling error. Volunteers for Sen. John McCain and other Republican candidates are hand-delivering information packets in a county that usually has a Republican stronghold. They know this county has the ability to push the state over one way or another.

Virginia

Over the next two days both parties will be visiting the key state of Virginia. A State where a Democrat has not won since Lyndon B. Johnson 44 years ago.The Washington Post reported that Sen. Obama seems to have the advantage, having nearly three times as many offices, and helped register about a half million new voters who are believed, by state officials, to support the Democrat.

Florida

Sen. McCain is finding himself having to defend grounds that have been Republican states in recent elections. North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri and obviously Florida, are all states captured by Republicans in 2004 and where polls show Sen. Obama running strongly. In Florida Sen. McCain is continuing his broken record of quoting Sen. Obama on wanting to spread the wealth around. The LA Times reported this quote: "Senator Obama says that he wanted to spread your wealth around," McCain told the crowd. "When politicians talk about taking your money and spreading it around, you'd better hold onto your wallet." Sen. Obama made the statement of "spreading the wealth around" when answering a question from the recent celebrity, "Joe the Plumber." Sen. Barack Obama was also quoted by the LA Times here: "Sen. McCain doesn't look like President Bush, he doesn't have that Texas accent like President Bush. And I don't blame Sen. McCain for all of President Bush's mistakes," Obama said. "After all, he's only voted with George Bush 90% of the time."

Both presidential candidates have already laid out their plan if elected into the White House. Since there is not much time left, each party is trying to get all the votes they can. At this point I'm not sure if it's about showing the American people why their plan is better for our country over the other's plan. I see both just trying to prove that the other's plan is worse than their own. For Sen. McCain it seems he is battling in states he didn't necessarily think he would be this late in the campaign. For Sen. Obama, I would imagine, he is feeling confident with a slight sense of worry, knowing anything could still happen.

Photograph of Obama supporters who held a debate party and all plan to vote by mail.

by: Carmel Zucker for The New York Times