The key states in the 1948 election were Ohio, California, and Illinois. Truman won all three of these states by a margin of less than one percentage point, for a combined total of 78 electoral votes. Had Dewey carried all three states - a shift of 29,000 votes - he would have won the election in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote by 2.13 million votes (or 4.36%), while if Dewey had won only two (any two) of the three states, Truman would have had the most electoral votes, but he and Dewey would have been short of the 266 required for a majority, meaning the Dixiecrats would have succeeded in their goal of forcing the election into the House of Representatives.