(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Nebraska state legislators blocked a vote Wednesday night that would alter how the state’s Electoral College votes are distributed, NBC News reported.
Currently, Nebraska divides up three out of five of its Electoral College votes in proportion to which candidate wins in its three electoral districts—meaning that, unlike other states, candidates can split Nebraska, a heavily Republican state.
Because of the city of Omaha, pursuing one of Nebraska’s districts, District 2, becomes a viable play for Democratic candidates.
With the exception of Maine, which also apportions some of its votes to individual districts, all other states designate the Electoral College vote to delegates who have pledged to support the winning candidate, regardless of the margin of the victory.
Among those lobbying hard for the initiative is conservative pundit Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA.
Kirk referred to the Omaha district as “the most important electoral vote in America” during a recent interview with state Sen. Loren Lippincott, who introduced the bill earlier this year,
The Cornhusker State also received pressure from former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, to abandon the idiosyncratic system.
Nonetheless, the measure fell short, with only eight of its 49 total senators supporting the effort and 36 voting in opposition, including its 16 elected Democrats.
Lippincott said that he would try one more time later this month before the legislative session draws to a close.
Spoke with Lippincott, the sponsor of the winner-take-all bill. He says he will make one more attempt tomorrow to attach the bill’s language to LB 541, a bill by Sen. John Lowe of Kearney to change public power elections and make them partisan.
— Aaron Sanderford (@asanderford) April 4, 2024
It remains unclear, however, that there is enough support for the winner-take-all measure.
State Republicans had tried to get Lippincott’s bill tacked on to other legislation as an amendment, but in the end it was determined not to be relevant enough.
Legislators have previously tried to alter the state’s approach to the Electoral College on several occasions, including in 2016, but it has failed each time.
Talk of such alterations has concerned President Joe Biden and Democrats more generally, who want to hang on to the perennial possibility of securing the district two electoral college vote.
“Democrats in Nebraska care about the importance of the president’s agenda and want him to succeed here in [District] 2 and across the state,” said Brent Comstock, a Democrat consultant. “They’re working together to make sure that happens …”
