Thanks to the obsolete Electoral College, recounts won't be requested in most states, no matter how close the nationwide popular vote might be.

Well more than half of the fifty states are already "known" to be firmly held by one side or the other; the national candidates are really only campaigning seriously (i.e., spending serious money) in about eleven "battleground" states. In the end, it is very unlikely that more than one or two of those states will have an outcome close enough to dispute ~ and the final decision about ththe outcome in one or stwo states could decide the election one way or the other.

If there is a really large turnout of first-time voters, an Obama landslide might well be possible. Based upon the current polling, which concentrates on the population of citizens known to vote regularly, the race is still close enough that, in another month, it could go either way.

Last election, the final decision on a very close race in one state, Ohio, determined the winner. Election before that, it was Florida. If large numbers of previously non-voting young people and black people do not come out of the woodwork to give Obama a clearcut victory, we might well see a recount or two (along with the accompanying skullduggery) in either or both of those same two states, or maybe Michigan and/or Pennsylvania as well.