When the UK begins life outside the European Union on January 1 all eyes will turn to Dover, the seaside town on the Brexit frontline which is set to bear the brunt of feared customs chaos.

But before then, a mere 3,838 miles away, it is at the centre of another political battleground, or rather five versions of it are.

In Ohio there are five Dovers in four of the mid western swing state's 88 counties.

The sheer size of Ohio, which is home to 11.69 million people and is almost as big as the whole of England, means it holds 18 crucial electoral college votes and possibly even the keys to the White House itself.

To win the election incumbent Republican president Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden need to secure 270 of the 538 electoral college votes available – indications suggest Biden is there or thereabouts but the half a dozen undecided states like Ohio possess 134 votes.

Here's a University of Kent professor explaining how it will work, who is set to win and what it means for us.

So, with Ohio hanging in the balance each of the Dovers are very important.

The city of Dover is home to 12,826 people and, alongside the far smaller township of the same name, is in Tuscarawas county, which saw a strong Republican win in 2016, with 64.7% of voters backing Trump.

Before that the Republicans narrowly won in 2012 but Barack Obama's Democrats pipped them in 2008.

Over in the Athens county township of Dover unemployment is twice the national average and voters are leaning liberal, having backed the Democrats in all of the past five elections.

It's a completely different story in the still smaller township of Dover, Union county where things are pretty comfortable despite the population booming by 26% since 2010 to... 2,776 people. It has voted Republican by quite a margin since 2000.

The story is the same, albeit on an even smaller scale, in Dover, Fulton county. Obama did almost coax voters away from the Republicans in 2010, which was the only one of the past five elections where the party's margin of victory dropped below 10%.

While the smaller Dover may look all but decided a big turn out of Tuscarawas county voters so far suggests things may be more interesting there - although admittedly Biden will be relying on the more metropolitan areas.

Across 24 states there are another 26 Dovers, not including some smaller settlements, which makes it the US' 14th most popular place name.

And it is one of dozens of namesake Kent towns dotted around the US, proudly named by settlers in the 1600s and sharing very little in common with their counterparts in the Garden of England.

But one place with slightly more in common than most is Margate, Florida.

Sure there's 4,470 miles mainly filled by the Atlantic Ocean separating the sunshine state from the decidedly less sunny Kent coast but both these places are home to around 60,000 people.

And both have politically gone blue for a long, long time.

But while in Kent that means consistently backing the Tories in a county which does the same, in Florida it means consistently backing the Democrats in a state which is being viciously fought over.

Florida and its 29 electoral college votes is the second largest 'undecided' state behind Texas (which has no Kent namesake towns so doesn't count) considered undecided.

If you're reading this from Maidstone , Kent, big deal, you're one of 113,137 people living there, but if you're reading this in Maidstone, Vermont (admittedly unlikely) you're in quite an exclusive group.

Only around 200 people call the place home, so it's similar in size to a small primary school.

It's tiny size and rural nature may explain why it's bucked the trend in a state which has voted Democrat consistently and is set to go blue again this time round, with its three electoral college votes going to Biden.

The town (yes really) of Maidstone is confusingly in Essex county which flipped to Republican in 2016 after eight years of backing Obama – sadly for the good people of Maidstone it's unlikely their votes will have that much impact.

If the traffic is good getting the nine miles from Maidstone, Kent, to Kings Hill near West Malling will take 16 minutes but if you were to travel from Maidstone, Vermont, to the Civil War site of the Battle of King's Hill in Giles County, Tennessee you'll want to take a day off work.

The journey would take you 13 hours and 29 minutes across 872 miles of highway and will end up in a vastly different political landscape.

Historically the state and its 11 electoral college votes has flipped between the Democrats and Republicans since that fateful fight - also known as the Battle of Anthony's Hill and the Battle of Devil's Gap - on Christmas Day 1864.

But in recent years Giles County, like Tennessee in general, has been red as can be.

In 2016 Giles County voted 71.6% in favour of Trump, which actually means it is relatively liberal for the southern state.

If you think leaping from a suburban parish popular with commuters to the US's Bible Belt based on one of the names of a long-forgotten battle was tenuous wait right there.

Arizona has no towns named after anywhere in the UK let alone in Kent but it is hugely important to Trump and Biden.

It holds 11 electoral college votes and since 1948 has only backed a Democrat once, when Bill Clinton won in 1996.

In 2016 Trump won the state by 4% but changing demographics – in particular the Latino vote – means it is set to go down to the wire this time.

But why, if nowhere in Arizona shares a name with anywhere in Kent, are we even bothering to mention it?

Because of the five-star rated Arizona Diner in Sheerness, of course!

Head to Cranbrook in rural Kent and you'd find it hard to find many people who have watched Eminem's cult classic film 8 Mile and there'd likely be even less who would be willing to face off in a battle rap.

But tell them that the rapper had in fact dissed their home town and they'd no doubt be fuming.

In one of the final scenes of the 2002 movie Marshall Mathers raps: "But I know something about you, You went to Cranbrook, that's a private school, What's the matter, dawg? You embarrassed? This guy's a gangster? His real name's Clarence."

"**** Cranbrook!" He concludes.

Evidently Slim Shady wasn't interested in a picturesque English town or even its boarding school of the same name, instead he was on about posh Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

The town has gone blue in the past five elections, albeit by slim margins, and the state is leaning liberal this time too.

Rochester, in up-state New York, is split but the state itself and its 29 votes will almost certainly back Biden, alongside Canterbury and Ashford in Connecticut, Dover in Delaware, Chatham in Massachusetts, and Gravesend in Brooklyn, New York.

Another Dover, this time in Kentucky; Romney in West Virginia; and Tunbridge in North Dakota are all safe Republican states.

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