Yard signs with a big, blue dots began appearing all over Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District this summer, signifying support for a Democratic presidential win in the Omaha-dominated area. The state’s Republican governor considered calling a special session of the Legislature to eliminate the blue dot in blood-red Nebraska. Despite pressure from national Republicans and even former President Donald Trump, the blue dot remains.
What’s the meaning of all of this? Nebraska is one of two states that divides its presidential electoral votes by congressional district. Nebraska has five: two for each Senate seat, and one for each congressional district. In most states, the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral votes.
Common knowledge this year is that Vice President Kamala Harris could win the 2nd District, and that electoral vote could determine the next president of the United States. In this close election, there are several scenarios that indicate the blue dot could be the decider.
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How did this happen? I recently traveled to the south Lincoln home of former state Sen. DiAnna Schimek, who introduced the bill in 1991 that divided up the electoral votes by district. She served in the Legislature for 20 years (before term limits kicked in) from 1989 to 2009. She was the prime sponsor of the bill, LB115, which had four co-sponsors, two Democrats and two Republicans.
She told me she got the idea of introducing the split electoral vote concept at a national conference she was attending early in her term, and liked the idea because it encourages grassroots activity and inspires more people to vote.
“Also, early on, Nebraska was one of very few states that had presidential primaries, and candidates would come here to campaign. That hadn’t happened for a long time,†she said.
The bill got out of the Legislature’s Government Committee without stirring up much controversy and onto the floor of the Legislature, where the partisans in the nonpartisan body began to take notice. Republicans said it was unnecessary because there was a “minuscule†chance it would take effect. They weren’t very prescient, however. Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden won the 2nd District electoral vote in 2008 and 2020. Opponents argued that Nebraska should wait for other states to take the lead in making such a radical change.
The bill advanced by a vote of 25-23 on both of the first two rounds of consideration. It takes 25 votes in the 49-member Unicameral to move a bill to final reading and then onto the governor. At that time there were 21 Democrats in the nonpartisan Legislature, so she needed some Republican votes to get it to the governor’s desk.
As she describes the final vote: “I looked at the voting board and there were 23 green lights up there for passage. I was short two. I looked over at Sen. Brad Ashford (a Republican then, but later elected to Congress in the 2nd District as a Democrat) and as he described it to her, ‘I gave him a steely stare,’ and he pushed the green button giving me the 24th vote.â€
But where was the necessary 25th vote? “Then, I realized I hadn’t voted yet! I pushed the button, and the rest is history.â€
Democratic Gov. Ben Nelson signed the bill, and the blue dot was created.