Possible ways to get to 270 EV

Factual Questions
1

On ABC news, they said there were LOTS of ways to get to 270+ Electoral Votes. And that there were 4 million (I think) ways, just counting the 10 battleground states.

I can accept the 1st statement, but my question is on the second.

Given 10 battleground states, each can vote 1 of 2 ways (discounting a 3rd party candidate). that makes only 2^10 = 1024 possible ways the battleground states can go.

I may have misheard the #, but is my thinking valid?

Anyone have the # for the 1st question (how many ways can you get to 270)?

Brian

2

If you categorize them by the number of votes they are worth, but still count different permutations (imagine winning Delaware but losing Rhode Island, and vice versa), then the number of permutations that sum to at least 270 should be very close to 2^50 * (270/538).

3

Forgot about DC, thats 2^51 possible ways of voting (more if you split Nebraska, Maine & Colorado).

but one has to carry at least 11 states, and only one way of doing that.
Brian