“Winner-takes-all” initiative fails
An attempt to return Nebraska to the “winner-take-all” electoral system has failed during this legislative session.
Legislative Bill 764, introduced by State Senator Loren Lippincott, would have created the change but did not receive enough votes to advance out of committee. A second attempt was made on April 10, through an amendment to another bill. The amendment failed, receiving only nine votes, while 36 votes were against it.
Nebraska Governor, Jim Pillen, announced his support for changing the system. Allegedly, Donald Trump also urged a Nebraska State Senator to pass a bill creating the change. The Republican Party supports this change since it provides an almost definite guarantee of all 5 Nebraska electoral votes going to the Republican party. Each electoral vote holds importance, as it is unlikely, but not impossible for an election to be determined by a single electoral vote.
The United States elects its presidents through the Electoral College system. Under this system, each state has a certain number of electoral votes that equals the amount of representatives the state has in Congress. This includes the number of representatives in the House of Representatives, which is based on population, and an additional two votes from the two representatives in the Senate. To win the election, a candidate needs to earn 270 out of the 528 electoral votes.
The “winner-take-all” method means that the candidate who wins the majority of the popular vote in the state is awarded all of the state's electoral votes. Nebraska and Maine are the only states that do not follow the “winner-take-all” method. Instead, they use the congressional district method. In the congressional district method, two electoral votes go to the state’s popular vote winner. Then the remaining votes are awarded to the winner of their corresponding congressional district.
The “winner-take-all” system is not required in the constitution but was adopted by most states in the 1830s. Maine changed to the congressional district method in 1972 and Nebraska followed in 1992.
Nebraska has five electoral votes. Two of those votes go to the winner of the state's popular vote, while the rest can be awarded separately. This system impacted the election in 2008 and 2020 when Nebraska’s Second Congressional District flipped blue and awarded the electoral vote to the Democrat candidate. The second district is driven by the more left-leaning population of Omaha.
By Aubrey Benton