Trump urges Nebraska legislature to change voting rules

Former President Donald Trump is making another attempt to secure one of Nebraska's electoral college votes that could determine his place in the White House in November.

According to the Nebraska Examiner and other media outlets, the Republican candidate is currently addressing Nebraska state legislators. In this second attempt, he is seeking to pass a bill in the unicameral legislature that would change the state's electoral vote allocation system and deny Vice President Kamala Harris the chance to win one of the state's five electoral votes.

If this move succeeds, it could change the electoral landscape and force Harris to win another state to win the presidency.

A purple dot in a sea of red

Nebraska and Maine are the only states that do not use a winner-take-all system for electoral votes. In Nebraska, two of the five electoral votes go to the candidate who receives the most votes statewide. The other three go to the winners of the state's three congressional districts.

Although Nebraska is a predominantly Republican state, its 2nd Congressional District, which surrounds Omaha, has sometimes been won by Democrats in recent presidential elections, including former President Barack Obama in 2008 and President Joe Biden in 2020.

That one electoral vote could be Harris' key to getting the 270 votes she needs to win: If she wins the “blue wall” swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the one vote from Nebraska could give her a majority in the Electoral College. She would not need to win any of the Sun Belt swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

Current polls show Harris tied or ahead in the Blue Wall states, but trailing in some battleground Sun Belt states.

Some Republicans in Nebraska have been trying to change the system of apportioning electoral votes by congressional districts since the legislature passed that law in 1991. However, the bills have either been vetoed by a Democratic governor or rejected in committee.

Nebraska's unique system attracted national attention in April when conservatives from across the country, including Trump, urged Republican Gov. Jim Pillen to push a bill through the legislature that would restore the state's winner-take-all system. Although Republicans are in the majority and Pillen supported the measure, the measure fell short of the 33 votes it needed to overcome a filibuster. But Pillen and other Republicans in the state are toying with the idea of calling a special session to pass the measure if they can find the votes to do so.

“I and other conservatives worked diligently in a special pre-election session to establish legislative support for the winner-take-all (WTA) system,” Pillen said in a statement last week.

“At this point, I have not received any concrete and public communication that 33 senators would vote for the WTA,” Pillen said. “If that changes, I will be more than happy to call a special session.”

In an attempt to persuade a handful of Republican senators to support the winner-take-all principle, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina visited the Nebraska governor's residence in a closed session on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported.

“I want the law changed. I have no qualms about it,” Graham, an avid Trump supporter, told the Washington Post.

A key Nebraska lawmaker is Senator Mike McDonnell of Omaha, who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican at the end of this year's legislative session after being censured by the state Democratic Party for his support of anti-abortion rights legislation. Although he is now part of the Republican majority in the legislature, he has taken a clear stance against voting for winner-take-all legislation and reiterated his opinion this week.

Maine no longer in the race

The current Republican push to make Nebraska a winner-take-all state is different from last time because Maine no longer has the ability to make the same change — which could have neutralized the effect of Nebraska's extra electoral vote in Trump's column.

When the dispute over Nebraska's electoral system reignited in April, Maine House Majority Leader Maureen Terry, a Democratic lawmaker, said if Nebraska changed its system, Maine would do the same, taking away an electoral vote Trump won in 2020 when he won one of the state's congressional districts. Now, Maine doesn't have the option to change its electoral system because it takes 90 days for a law to take effect after it is passed by the Maine Legislature, which would be too late for the Electoral College to meet on Dec. 17.

A purple dot in a sea of ​​red

Maine no longer in the race

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A purple dot in a sea of red