FairVote, a nonpartisan organization that studies elections and proposed election reforms, has tracked and analyzed the travels of President Barack Obama since he took office and of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney since he became his party's presumptive nominee in April.

As reported on FairVote’s website, the states in which President Obama attended the most events in the period of time between entering the White House and accepting his party’s nomination for reelection were dominated by his biggest donor states in 2008 and swing states that he hopes to win in 2012 (along with White House’s neighboring state of Maryland).

President Obama’s Most Visited States between January 20, 2009 and the Close of Democratic National Convention (September 7, 2012)

As we can see, even before the two month period prior to Election Day when campaigning is most intense, Obama very clearly favored swing states, unless the potential for big donations to his campaign was involved. The five most visited states either hosted the most major fundraising events for him during the 2012 election cycle or had the most swing electoral votes up for grabs. The three states to receive the most visits from President Obama were also the ones that have held the most major fundraising events for him during the 2012 election cycle. Another large state, Illinois, had a lot visits from the president, but had to hold sixteen large fundraisers for him in return, whereas the swing states of Ohio and Virginia did not. The state with the biggest discrepancy between visits and fundraisers, Iowa, has seen the president 30 times since he entered office, but has not hosted a single fundraiser for him that he attended.

In contrast, the president has yet to visit 6 states. One stark example is South Carolina. Despite the fact that he has attended 19 events in its neighboring North Carolina since he became president, and despite the fact that his party held its national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, just a few miles from the South Carolina border, he has yet to visit South Carolina since he won the state’s delegates in the 2008 presidential primaries. Twenty other states have been visited three times or less. None of these 26 states are projected to be swing states in the November election, and all 12 of the states with one or less visit from the president are expected to vote for Mitt Romney in November.

Gov. Romney’s visits in the four months leading up to the end of the Democratic National Convention showed a similar pattern to President Obama’s visits during his presidency. New York and California have seen the governor 17 times, but only in return for holding 14 major fundraisers. Ohio, on the other hand, has seen Romney more than New York has, even though Ohio has not held a single fundraiser that was large enough to merit an appearance by Romney. The other states on his list, apart from Republican stronghold Texas, are all potential swing states.