An opinion from the Washington Post: Don’t live in a swing state? You can still influence elections.

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With the November vote at hand, many Americans will sit with their devices and obsess over the margins in the latest swing-state polls. This won’t help them influence the election any more than a fan collecting baseball statistics helps a batter get on base. But the same polling data can be used to drive active political participation, if one allows for a little uncertainty.

Campaign strategists do this all the time. They use math to help politicians decide where to travel and spend money. The same kinds of calculations can help ordinary citizens make the best use of their time and resources.

Well-meaning small donors too often waste their money — as many Democrats did in 2020 when they sent money to support Amy McGrath’s bid to unseat then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. McGrath raised $90 million but lost by almost 20 points. That money might as well have been lit on fire. This year, Republicans might likewise waste donations on former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, who trails Democratic nominee Angela D. Alsobrooks by double digits in surveys.

. . . The 10 places where citizens have the most per-vote power in the presidential race — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, Michigan, Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — contain only 25 percent of the U.S. population. Yet in the rest of the country, voters have other kinds of power. Add in races for Congress and state leadership, as well as ballot initiatives, and competitive races can be found in 40 states and the District of Columbia.