Nebraska Senator Wants to Elect Presidential Electors At-Large
March 29th, 2008Nebraska and Maine are somewhat well-known for being the only two states that elect one presidential elector from each U.S. House district. The other 48 states elect presidential electors at-large. In theory, Nebraska and Maine could send elect some Democratic electors and some Republican electors, although it just happens that ever since those two states have used the district system, each district in that state has always agreed with all the other districts (Nebraska has 3 districts; Maine has 2).
Nebraska Senator Mike Friend introduced HB 433 last year, to end the system of electing one elector from each district. Although it has not advanced, it has not been defeated either. Nebraska has two-year legislative sessions. This year’s session will end on April 17.
Senator Friend also introduced a state constitutional amendment last year to give Nebraska a bicameral legislature. That proposal was LR3CA, but that was defeated, on March 8, 2007. Nebraska is the only state with a one-House legislature, but Senator Friend would have proposed a Senate of 31 members and a House of 62 members. Many Nebraska State Senators are serving their last terms this year, due to term limits finally taking effect. The Friend proposal would have provided an escape route for such Senators, if it had been enacted, since they could have run for the new House of Representatives.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Would Nebraska then use the “block” system used by almost everyone else, or would voters cast ballots for individual Electors?
March 30th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Honestly, it might be better to become part of the NPV Compact, but if we had to do proportional allocation, nationwide enactment would be fairer.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
The bill would make Nebraska like all other states (except Maine). Boring.
March 30th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
As I suspected, the main reason we continue to have bicameral legislatures in states is to provide welfare jobs for politicians.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Richard, would you support a system where all Electors are listed on the ballot and were elected independently of one another?
There are three ways this could be done:
1) each Elector is elected “at-large”/state-wide via popular vote, voter would cast ballot for # of electors equal to number allowed for that State
2) Electors are elected state-wide, but instead of being listed together on the same ballot, each Elector is listed as “Elector #”
3) Two Electors elected state-wide and one Elector from each of the States congressional districts (similar to the Maine/Nebraska method, except Electors are elected independently of one another) voter can cast ballot for 3 Electors (theoretically from 3 different parties)
April 1st, 2008 at 6:35 am
Our Unicameral can at times be frustrating, but I still like the fact there are only 49 senators.