Washington (CNN) -- President James K. Polk holds a distinction among those who have sought the nation's top job: He's the only major candidate to win the White House despite losing the vote in the state where he was born and the state where he lived. 

It happened in 1844, and now 168 years later, Republican nominee Mitt Romney may need to duplicate Polk's feat if he wants to defeat President Barack Obama in Tuesday's election. 

According to polls, Romney faces the prospect of losing both the state of his birth, Michigan, and the state where he lives and served as governor, Massachusetts. 

CNN Polling Center 

Obama holds a double digit lead in Massachusetts, but the race is closer in Michigan, with the polls tightening, though the president remains in front. 

Under the Electoral College system, each state is worth a certain number of electoral votes based on population. There are a total of 538 electoral votes available, meaning 270 are required to win. 

Romney has many plausible paths to victory on Tuesday without winning Michigan or Massachusetts. 

Yet the prospect that he might lose either or both raises the question of how many other presidential candidates in U.S. history also were unable to win their birth or home states? 

Winners who overcame the loss of a state with strong personal ties included Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon and both George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush. 

New national poll shows Obama, Romney virtually tied 

Honest Abe won his home state of Illinois, but lost his birth state of Kentucky in both of his presidential runs in 1860 and 1864. In 1968, Nixon won his birth state of California, where he also ran unsuccessfully as governor, but lost his home state of New York, where he had been working as a lawyer for a few years. 
Is he leading in another state?
Obama holds a double digit lead in Massachusetts, but the race is closer in Michigan, with the polls tightening, though the president remains in front. 
