Cornhusks and the Electoral College

Greetings,

The eyes of the electoral world were upon the state of Nebraska for a brief moment on Friday. It was announced that Barack Obama had won one of the state's five electoral votes. This is due to a system of awarding some of the state's electoral votes based upon who wins in a particular Congressional district, not on who wins the popular vote statewide.

All fifty states have electoral votes. Each state has two for its US Senators, and at least one for the number of members it has in the House of Representatives. Example, California: 2+53=55, Wyoming: 2+1=3, Tennessee: 2+9=11. Remember, it is not the candidate who wins the national popular vote who becomes President, but rather the candidate who wins the most electoral votes. As a result, candidates fight to win individual 'swing' states to gain the most electors rather than run a campaing to pile up the biggest amount of votes nationwide. (Note: It is possible to come in 2nd in the popular vote but win the electoral vote and become President. Ex. Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 and George W. Bush in 2000).

Forty-eight of the fifty states currently award all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote within the state. Some have argued the fairness of this system, as a candidate might win California by one vote (theoretically), but not pick up any of its 53 electoral votes. Colorado voters in 2004 defeated a statewide referendum that would have awarded their electoral votes on a proportional basis.

Nebraska and Maine are the two exceptions. These states award their electoral votes in a unique way. The two electoral votes for the two US Senators in each state are awarded to the winner of the statewide popular vote. As a result, McCain picked up two in Nebraska and Obama two in Maine.

Here's where it gets a bit trickier. The remaining votes are awarded based upon the candidate who wins the most votes in each of the Congressional districts in the state. Until 2008, there was nothing unusual about this as in both Maine and Nebraska the statewide winner also won in each state's Congressional districts. However, that changed in 2008. After the counting of mail-in ballots, it was determined that Barack Obama had won more votes than John McCain in the Nebraska 2nd Congressional district (the smallest district in the state, which includes the city of Omaha). As a result, one of the Nebraska electoral votes was awarded to Obama for a 4 to 1 McCain to Obama split in the state's electoral votes. (Maine awarded all votes to Obama). Also, the Republican candidate in the 2nd district won the Congressional election, which would seem to indicate that many voters in the Nebraska second congressional district voted a split ticket.

And in a further peace of trivia, Nebraska is the only state government to not have an upper and lower house in its legislature. It operates on a unicameral system, one where there is only one house in the legislature and one in which the members are officially non-partisan.

JWF