If you've ever shouted at the TV during election season or crafted a perfect 270toWin map, now there's a platform built just for you. Presidential Pick'em is the interactive election prediction game that lets you map out who you think will win each state—and by how much—then compete against thousands of others to see who really has the sharpest political instincts.

From Dorm Room Bracket to National Phenomenon

The idea started back in college as a simple email game called The Election Bracket. In 2020, a group of friends sent in their electoral map predictions by hand, and whoever came closest to the real results won bragging rights. Fast-forward to 2024, and that humble competition evolved into Presidential Pick'em—a full-blown web app with a global leaderboard, margin-of-victory scoring, and custom pools for friends and communities to compete.

How It Works

Players fill out a U.S. electoral map, picking the winner of each state and choosing from margin-of-victory categories:
<1%, 1–5%, 5–10%, or 10%+.
The closer your predictions are to the actual results, the more points you score.

After election night, the results are locked in and a leaderboard reveals the best predictors across the country—and the globe.

Who It's For

If you're politically engaged and have opinions about how the election will shake out, Presidential Pick'em is for you. It's especially popular with:

• Political junkies who follow polls religiously
• Data nerds who want to test their forecasting skills
• Sports bettors and casual gamblers who love competition

What Makes It Unique

While sites like 270toWin are great for building maps, Presidential Pick'em turns those maps into a game. You're not just building a prediction—you're putting it to the test against thousands of others.

Unlike pundit forecasts or static projections, this is crowdsourced prediction data in action. You can compete against strangers, form a pool with your friends, or go head-to-head with rival communities like college campuses or political Discord servers.

4,000 Submissions in 3 Weeks

In just the three weeks before the 2024 election:

• Over 4,000 users submitted predictions
• Only a few hundred maps were non-unique—highlighting the diversity of political thinking
• 156 people got every state winner correct—but none nailed the margins perfectly

That's the magic of margin-based scoring: it rewards not just being right, but being precise.

Looking Ahead: 2028, Midterms, and Beyond

Presidential Pick'em will return for every U.S. presidential election—and possibly midterms too. The 2024 launch proved that people want to engage with politics in an interactive, competitive way.

We're also testing a version for the Canadian federal election, using a simplified questionnaire instead of a 338-riding map.