{"id":21077,"date":"2017-03-10T10:57:53","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T16:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=21077"},"modified":"2017-03-10T10:57:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T16:57:53","slug":"electoral-winner-take-all-bill-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=21077","title":{"rendered":"Electoral winner-take-all bill considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony March 9 on a bill that would reinstate a winner-take-all system for allocating Nebraska\u2019s presidential electoral votes.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Murante<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently, the winner of Nebraska\u2019s statewide popular vote receives two Electoral College votes. Since 1996, the state\u2019s three congressional districts also award one electoral vote each based on the popular vote winner in each district. Maine is the only other state to use this system.<\/p>\n

LB25, introduced by Gretna Sen. John Murante, would reinstate a winner-take-all system and award all five electoral votes to the winner of the state\u2019s popular vote. Attempts in the last three legislative sessions to roll back the option to split the state\u2019s Electoral College votes have been narrowly defeated.<\/p>\n

Murante said the time is right to finally pass a bill moving Nebraska back to a winner-take-all system, which he said better reflects the founders\u2019 intent regarding how presidents should be chosen. The founders understood that states have common interests and cultures, he said, and should speak with one voice in presidential elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that winner-take-all is consistent with that philosophy,\u201d he said. \u201cIn my view, the spirit of the constitution is violated with our current system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale testified in support of the bill, saying winner-take-all would maximize the state\u2019s influence in presidential elections. Because Nebraska shares similar values with neighboring small states, he said, it is in voters\u2019 interest not to split their electoral votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt maximizes our power in presidential elections,\u201d Gale said, adding that other states have not followed Nebraska\u2019s lead because they recognize the importance of consolidating their electoral power into a unified voice.<\/p>\n

Kenny Zoeller, executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party, also supported the bill. Calling the current system a \u201cpolitical ploy\u201d to make the state\u2019s 2nd Congressional District a swing district, he said it unfairly prioritizes a small group of voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis inequality has further exacerbated the urban-rural divide within our state just for the hopes of having a presidential candidate visit Omaha once every four years\u201d Zoeller said.<\/p>\n

Former Lincoln public school teacher Judy Martindale testified in opposition, saying the current system is analogous to electing the state\u2019s governor by one vote from each of Nebraska\u2019s 49 legislative districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the farmlands to the city, we all should have a voice in who we want to lead our country, and we should have equal say in electing our president regardless of where we live,\u201d Martindale said.<\/p>\n

Former state senator DiAnna Schimek, who sponsored the legislation establishing Nebraska\u2019s current system, also testified against the bill. She said the ability for a state to split its electoral votes, as Nebraska did in 2008, can serve as a \u201csafety valve\u201d when there are political differences between districts within a state.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main reasons that I introduced the bill is that I thought it would give people some sense of their own power,\u201d Schimek said. \u201cIt would give them a sense that their vote really did count.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LB25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony March 9 on a bill that would reinstate a winner-take-all system for allocating Nebraska\u2019s presidential electoral votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-21077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-john-murante"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LB25Murante3-9-17a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21079,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21077\/revisions\/21079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}