The table below shows the states in which the presidential and vice-presidential candidates held their 253 post-convention general-election campaign events in 2012.

As can be seen from the table:

• In 2012, President Obama conducted post-convention campaign events in just eight states after being nominated, and Governor Romney did so in only 10 states. In comparison, in 2008, Obama conducted post-convention events in 14 states, and McCain did so in 19 states.
• Four out of five states (and four out of five Americans) were ignored by the candidates in the post-convention campaign period in 2012.
• Ohio received 73 of the 253 post-convention campaign events (29%).
• Over two-thirds (69%) of the post-convention campaign events were conducted in just four states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and Iowa).
• Only one of the 13 smallest states (i.e., those with three or four electoral votes) received any post-convention campaign events (New Hampshire).
• Only three of the 25 smallest states (i.e., those with seven or fewer electoral votes) received any post-convention campaign events (New Hampshire, Iowa, and Nevada).
• Only 12 states received even one post-convention campaign event involving a presidential or vice-presidential candidate.
• The battle was fully joined in only eight states. That is, only eight states received campaign events from all four major-party candidates (i.e., Obama, Romney, Biden, and Ryan).

This table is based on CNN’s “On the Trail” campaign tracker and covers the period from September 7, 2012 (the day after the Democratic National Convention) to November 6 (Election Day).

These counts are based on public campaign events (e.g., rallies, speeches, town hall meetings). They does not include private fund-raisers, private meetings, non-campaign events (e.g., the Al Smith Dinner in New York City, the Clinton Global Initiative dinner), televised national debates (e.g., flying into a state just to participate in the debate), or interviews in television studios (e.g., flying into New York to do an interview). A “visit” to a state may consist of one or more individual events held at different places and times within the state. A joint appearance of a presidential and vice-presidential candidate is counted as one event. Additional information is available at http://www.fairvote.org/presidential-tracker.

The table is sorted according to column 2 (showing the total number of campaign events per state). Columns 3, 4, 5, and 6 show the number of events by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Governor Mitt Romney, and Congressman Paul Ryan, respectively.