Pick your President on Washingtonpost.com

Users can give their best guess of who is going to win the presidential election in Washingtonpost.com's Pick Your President Contest. The contest allows users to pick which candidate will win each state and automatically tally's the electoral votes. Users look at a map and click once to give a state to Obama and twice to give the state to McCain. The interactive map provides historical information about the previous outcomes in each state as the mouse is scrolled across the state. The user can also see trends amongst other people who have filled out the map, maps submitted by others and the latest campaign research. Once they make their picks, the user names their map, provides a brief explanation of their picks and enters their contact info. The person with the highest correct score in the electoral college voting wins a $500 Best Buy gift card. This allows users to create and share their own content and even potentially win a prize for it. A newspaper or TV station does not have the ability to recieve direct information from users like the internet does.