{"id":38396,"date":"2025-04-09T09:22:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T15:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=38396"},"modified":"2025-04-09T09:22:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T15:22:18","slug":"electoral-winner-take-all-proposal-stalls-on-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=38396","title":{"rendered":"Electoral winner-take-all proposal stalls on first round"},"content":{"rendered":"

A measure aimed at reinstating a winner-take-all system for allocating Nebraska\u2019s five presidential electoral votes failed to advance from the first round of debate April 8.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Loren Lippincott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently, the winner of Nebraska\u2019s statewide popular vote receives two Electoral College votes. Since 1992, the state\u2019s three congressional districts also award one electoral vote each based on the popular vote winner in each district.<\/p>\n

Nebraska has split its electoral votes three times: in 2008, 2020 and 2024. Maine is the only other state to use this system.<\/p>\n

LB3, introduced by Central City Sen. Loren Lippincott on behalf of Gov. Jim Pillen, would reinstate a winner-take-all system and award all five electoral votes to the winner of the statewide popular vote.<\/p>\n

Calling the current split-vote system a \u201cfailed experiment,\u201d Lippincott said a winner-take-all allocation of Nebraska\u2019s electoral votes would make the state more influential in presidential races.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about party politics,\u201d Lippincott said. \u201cIt is about creating a system that ensures that every Nebraskan\u2019s vote counts equally, promotes unified representation and strengthens our state’s voice in the national conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hastings Sen. Dan Lonowski supported the proposal. He said the decisive vote that the 2nd Congressional District could deliver in a closely contested presidential election would be out of proportion to the nearly even party split that characterizes the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we want to be different from 48 other states and maybe incongruous?\u201d Lonowski said. \u201cWe need to get on the same sheet of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Bob Andersen of Omaha suggested that a return to winner-take-all could be a way to \u201cstop the influx of out-of-state funds\u201d that flow into CD2 during the presidential election season, which he said totaled more than $5.5 million and are a \u201cdetrimental side effect\u201d of the current system.<\/p>\n

Also speaking in support of LB3, Sen. Jared Storm of David City said the 1991 bill that created the state\u2019s current split electoral system passed with the minimum number of votes and has faced consistent attempts at repeal in the years since.<\/p>\n

If the split electoral system was superior to winner-take-all as its proponents suggest, he said, more than two states would have implemented it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the United States of America, not the united congressional districts of America,\u201d Storm said.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad opposed the measure and offered a motion to indefinitely postpone LB3. The possibility of gaining an electoral vote in CD2 gives Nebraska a relevance in national elections that it otherwise would lack, she said, and reflects the reality that not all Nebraskans share the same political priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a diverse state \u2026 our political culture is different in different parts of the state,\u201d Conrad said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha also opposed the measure. She said allocating electoral votes by district ensures an outcome that is \u201cclosest to the people.\u201d She suggested that the push to return the state to winner-take-all is a partisan attempt at \u201cconsolidation of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill is about locking up all five of Nebraska\u2019s electoral votes for the Republican Party because the current system doesn\u2019t always give them what they want,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston said all states would follow Nebraska\u2019s lead in allocating electoral votes \u201cin an ideal world.\u201d Speaking in opposition to LB3, he said the potential for a split electoral vote brings attention and resources to the Omaha area that would not happen otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who live in safe states or safe districts may not understand what it means to be courted,\u201d Riepe said. \u201cAs the saying goes, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got until you lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fremont Sen. Dave Wordekemper said he tried to find a way to support LB3, but could not. He said 75% of constituents in his legislative district, which includes residents of both CD1 and CD2, told him that they support keeping the current electoral system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy does this matter so deeply?\u201d Wordekemper said. \u201cBecause Nebraska\u2019s split electoral system isn\u2019t just a procedural quirk. It\u2019s part of our identity, just like the Unicameral.”<\/p>\n

After four hours of debate, Lippincott offered a motion to invoke cloture, which ceases debate and forces a vote on the bill. The motion failed on a vote of 31-18. Thirty-three votes were needed.<\/p>\n

A failed cloture motion ends debate on a measure for the day. LB3 is unlikely to be scheduled for further debate this session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A measure aimed at reinstating a winner-take-all system for allocating Nebraska\u2019s five presidential electoral votes failed to advance from the first round of debate April 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38393,"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[286],"class_list":["post-38396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-loren-lippincott"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/LB3Lippincott4-8-25a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38396","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=38396"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38398,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38396\/revisions\/38398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}