In about a month, the citizens of the United States will be voting to determine the next president to lead the country. With the little time left before election day, both political parties have been taking action to support their party’s candidate through several means. Specifically, members of the Republican party were driving an effort to alter how electoral voting works in Nebraska, a state that uses a proportional allocation system.
For most states, the electoral voting system follows a winner-take-all format in which all of its electoral votes go to the candidate who wins the popular vote of that state. Only two states have the alternate system: Maine and Nebraska. Nebraska began using their system in the 1992 election, and since then, it has only had an effect twice. Nebraska typically votes Republican, but in the 2008 and 2020 election, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, respectively, received one electoral vote from the 2nd district in the state.
The 2nd district’s recent lean towards voting for Democrats sparked this new effort to revert Nebraska’s system to the original winner-take-all system. Earlier in the year, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen put his support into a GOP-led bill that would make such a change. According to the New York Times, Jim Pillen stated that, “It [the bill] would bring Nebraska in line with 48 of our fellow states, better reflect the founders’ intent, and ensure our state speaks with one unified voice in presidential elections.”
However, on September 24, Pillen ended this effort. According to CNN, Pillen stated that he has “no plans to call a special session” in order to continue the effort. He adds,”Unfortunately, we could not persuade 33 state senators.” With the lack of 33 votes, including that of Republican Senator Mike McDonnell who announced shortly prior that he would not support the last-ditch effort, and with little time before the election, this is likely the end of the effort for now.
This is not the first time that there has been an attempt to revert the system. There were efforts back in 1995, 1997, and most recently in 2016. PBS reported in 2016 that “The effort was derailed after supporters failed to overcome a legislative filibuster, just as they were on the brink of approving it.” There were reasons noted for why the bill did not pass in the end. According to PBS, Democratic Senator Tanya Cook of Omaha stated that the winner-take-all system “will result in no-choice elections where one party has a permanent monopoly on power.” Former Nebraska state senator DiAnna Schimek, who sponsored the original bill to establish the system, commented that “I thought it would inspire more people to get involved,” noting that she felt people would feel more represented in the election if the state proportionally appointed its electors.
Due to all this, the 2nd congressional district of Nebraska, which includes Omaha, the largest city of Nebraska, has become a critical election battleground for the two candidates. With that being said, according to AP News, Harris has spent $5 million in the district since she entered the race and has more than $6 million in ad time up to election day, while Trump has only spent $95,000 with around $6,800 for ad time reserved up to the election. With both candidates very close in the polls right now, every electoral vote is going to count.
