Nebraska weighs change to winner-take-all system for Electoral College votes

Nebraska Republicans are clinging to the hope of changing the state’s method of awarding Electoral College votes to a winner-take-all system before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

That would block Vice President Kamala Harris from peeling off an electoral vote from the Omaha area’s 2nd Congressional District in her race to take the White House. 

Democrats call the 2nd District the “Blue Dot” after Vice President Joe Biden won it in 2020 to block former President Donald Trump’s reelection bid.

Nebraska and Maine are the only states that split their electoral votes. In Nebraska, two of the five electoral votes for president are awarded based on the statewide vote; the other three are assigned based on the winner of the election in each of the state’s congressional districts.

Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen, prodded by Trump, openly supported an effort in the last regular legislative session to return Nebraska to a winner-take-all system, which would be in line with 48 other states. 

It failed, but Pillen later hinted at calling a special session on the subject. There is still a chance he could call one before the Nov. 5 election. For now, though, Nebraska lawmakers are mired in a contentious special session over the state’s tax system. 

Pillen’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Nebraska Independent on the chances for a second special session.

Former Democratic state Sen. DiAnna Schimek, who successfully introduced the legislation to change Nebraska’s method for assigning Electoral College votes in 1991, said many voters she talks to like the system of splitting votes.

“It gives people a feeling that their vote really does count, and it stirs up excitement,” she said.

The district is again in play with Harris’ bid to win the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat Trump and claim the presidency.

The Republican Party holds a slim 38%-35% voter registration advantage over the Democrats in the 2nd Congressional District, while some 25% of the district’s voters are registered independents.

Nebraska recorded its first electoral vote split in 2008 when Barack Obama won the 2nd District in his successful bid for the White House.

“It doesn’t happen every time around, but it gives some bounce to the whole electoral process,” Schimek said. “People get excited about it.” 

No Democrat has won the statewide vote for president in Nebraska since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Republican state Sen. Loren Lippincott, who introduced the winner-take-all bill, said Pillen wants assurances from 33 of the one-house Legislature’s 49 members — the number needed to defeat a potential filibuster — that they will support the winner-take-all idea before he calls a special session.

“Presently, however, we are two votes short, and, yes, I am trying to secure those two additional votes,” Lippincott said in an email to the Nebraska Independent.

He added that he stands ready to reintroduce the legislation when lawmakers convene for their regular session in January 2025.

That Republicans keep pushing for the change doesn’t surprise Schimek.

“They don’t like it,” Schimek said. “They never liked it.”

 “At one point, they had introduced such a bill 17 times since passage [in 1991], and I quit counting,” she said. “It’s crazy.”