Karl Rove: Shifting of the electoral college map

Karl Rove has updated his Electoral College map -- check it out here -- and noted:

Each candidate saw three states change in his favor in the latest Electoral College map, with 2.3% movement in Barack Obama's direction and 5.3% in Mitt Romney's direction.

Romney gained ten "safe" EC votes as Missouri shifted from "toss-up" to "safe Romney" status, bringing his number to 111, while Obama's total fell fifteen points to 179 with New Mexico and Minnesota moving from "safe Obama" to "lean Obama." This is the lowest number of "safe" EC votes for Obama and the highest number for Romney since this map was first released in April.

There are nine states (101 EC votes) that "lean Obama" as Colorado, Michigan, and Ohio moved to "lean Obama" status, five states (71 EC votes) that "lean Romney," and six states (74 EC votes) that are "toss-ups."

However, it is important to remember that there are several reliable Republican states - South Carolina, Texas, South Dakota, Kentucky, and Tennessee - still labeled "toss-up" or "lean" due to lack of polling. If these states are included in Romney's total, which they inevitably will be, he actually beats Obama in the number of "safe" EC votes, 180 to 179.

Both candidates continue to poll neck-in-neck.