According to this report, the 2nd U.S. House district of Nebraska is somewhat likely to vote for Barack Obama. Nebraska is one of two states in which each U.S. House district elects its own elector. McCain is leading by 569 votes in the 2nd district, but a very large number of early votes remain to be counted, and so far Obama has been far ahead of McCain in the already-counted early votes in Nebraska.
That would make the Nebraska electoral vote this year 4 for McCain and 1 for Obama. Nebraska has 3 U.S. House districts, and of course it has two at-large electors.
That would be stunning – the first time the Democrats have won any electoral votes from here since 1964. I guess the Republican legislature would probably revert to the old system, still used in 48 other states, if that happens though.
CNN will have egg on their face if that happens. CNN currently shows McCain with 163 electors, which means they are giving the Nebraska district elector to McCain. Google has the math right at 162 on their map.
thought4food,
CNN isn’t the only source to have McCain’s total at 163.
Here are the main news sources count the vote in NE-2:
(MS)NBC, CBS, CNN: McCain
ABC, FOX, AP, NPR: Undecided
I don’t think we’ll know this until the electors meet on 15 December. From a purely historical view, this is nice.
Yes!
This shows why we need to adopt the Maine/Nebraska system to fix the Electoral College system. Adopting this system in every state with 2 or more Congressional Seats would give us the best possible system for electing the President.
States with only one Congressman, in effect, already have the Maine/Nebraska system
wouldn’t it be better to abolish the 18th century electoral college system and elect a president directly by the popular vote (with probably a second round like in France, when no candidate gets 50% + one vote)?
What?! Taking lessons in democracy from the French? I think we would rather keep our archaic system than ever admit that France does anything better than us! This is just the sort of Socialist stuff that McCain was trying to warn us about (;
French voters always have a free choice in presidential elections. Candidates for president get on the ballot in France if they submit a petition signed by 500 mayors. Since even the smallest communities in France have mayors (so that there are tens of thousands of mayors), there are usually 15 or so presidential candidates on the ballot in the first round.
Long ago I lived in France and studied at a French University. The French electoral system is horrible. The government is caught up in a permanent, Marxist, left-right tug-of-war and the people will never be free until they radically change their system.
Great to see that even one of the reddest states is not a monolith. In addition to Douglas County (Omaha), three other Nebraska counties gave Obama a majority — Lancaster (Lincoln) and two less populous counties, Saline and Thurston. We’d be better off without the Electoral College entirely, but since it would require a Constitutional amendment to change, we’re probably stuck with it.
How can one say the French elections aren’t free? Every French citizen, even those living in overseas parts of France (in the South Pacific, in South America, in the Caribbean, in two tiny islands next to Canada, on islands in the Indian Ocean) get a free choice for president. Ex-felons can vote.
By contrast, in the U.S., U.S. citizens living in Oklahoma can’t vote for anyone but Democrats and Republicans for president, and U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Samoa, can’t vote at all for presidential electors. Also in some states ex-felons can’t vote.
“I guess the Republican legislature would probably revert to the old system, still used in 48 other states, if that happens though.”
Wait, the Nebraska legislature is non-partisan though.
“This shows why we need to adopt the Maine/Nebraska system to fix the Electoral College system”
No, if that happened then you could potentially have a situation where one candidate narrowly wins all but one district, and then in the one district the other guy wins by blowout, thus giving him the overall edge in the state. Then that candidate has won the state but only gets 3 electors to show for it, how’s that fair? I think larger states should go to proportional allocation of House of Rep. electors and then give the winner the bonus 2 Senate electors (so it’s not totally proportional overall). This would make it easy for third parties to get electors in say California. I think the Electoral College is important for situations where the president-elect dies (ie, Horace Greeley) or the leading VP pick is pretty bad and the electors think someone else is better (ie, election of 1836).
Hey wouldn’t be nice if some of the electors prove faithless in January? Maybe a few from Georgia will go for Barr haha
Richard, you left out the Americans living abroad.
The Democrats grant them a few delegates in their
Convention so they recognize the difficulty of just
which state they should be able to vote in. When the
U. S. Constitution was written, with the slow pace
of travel it was not an issue of being able to vote
on Election Day if you were away from home. Ironi-
cally, a Presidential Elector who spends most of
their time abroad & so not even be within these United
States on Election Day gets to vote for President in
December when their state delegation officially votes.
One thing else, it will be interesting to see how many
news/information organizations will report the Obama
Nebraska Elector vote as “faithless” if Obama succeeds
in winning Nebraska #2.
American citizens living abroad, even permanently, can continue to vote in the last state in which they lived. In about one-third of the states, even young U.S. citizens who were born to U.S. citizens can vote in their parents’ state, even though these children have never set foot in the U.S.
“Wait, the Nebraska legislature is non-partisan though.”
What that means is that during the elections they do not print party labels on the ballot, which means everyone has to spend extra time researching the candidates to find out which party they are members of. In actuality, 63% of the seats are held by Republican Party members (before this last election anyway).
Half the votes in half the gerrymander areas = about 25 percent minority rule.
Each Prez is de facto elected by about 28-30 percent of the votes in the States/DC that he/she wins.
2008 math shortly.
Richard,
French elections may be free in the sense that everyone can vote, but the candidates that become the rulers and lawmakers as a result of their terrible electoral systemn insure that the country itself and the people living in it are NOT free.
The system has a great deal to do with who the winners will be. Single district plurality elections are the best way to insure liberty.
The various forms of runoff voting are a bad idea.