Nebraska lawmakers soundly reject 'winner-take-all' election system

The Nebraska Legislature has rejected a bill promoted by Donald Trump and other Republican legislators known as "Winner-Take-All." With this initiative, conservatives want the winner of the presidential election to keep all the electoral college seats that correspond to the state, instead of dividing them proportionally based on the results as it is currently done.

Nebraska, which is a strongly Republican-leaning state, would thus have become a major asset for Donald Trump heading into the November election. The Badger State, along with Maine, are the only two that do not use a winner-take-all system. In 2020, Trump took 58% of the total vote during the 2020 election, allowing Joe Biden to scratch one electoral seat out of the five in contention. Had the proposed system been applied this year, the former president would have taken all the electoral votes in this state.

However, the bill was rejected by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, the latter with a strong majority of 33 seats in the state House out of a total of 49. The bill needed 23 votes to pass, but instead got just eight in favor, compared to 36 against.

It was state Senator Julie Slama who introduced the changes in an expedited manner to attempt the change in the electoral system before the end of the legislative session on April 18. The Republican senator introduced the change in the electoral system as an amendment to a bill totally unrelated to the first issue. Slama reproached her fellow Republicans for not supporting the amendment, and said they showed a lack of "intestinal fortitude" despite holding the legislative majority.