'Bad faith' move by GOP Nebraska gov could help Trump win

In most states in the U.S., the Electoral College is a winner-take-all system. Conservative rural turnout in Texas overrides all the Democratic votes in major urban centers like Houston, Austin and El Paso; heavy Democratic turnout overrides all the conservative rural votes in Upstate New York.

Nebraska is a rare example of a deep red state that splits its electoral vote, and the district around Omaha is more Democrat-friendly than most of the state.

In an op-ed published by The Guardian on September 19, Canadian journalist Stephen Marche warns Nebraska Republicans may put an end to that — which "could alter the course of" the presidential election in November if it's really close.

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"In one of those strange freaks of American politics," Marche explains, "Nebraska has a split Electoral College vote. And for the past few elections, the city of Omaha has reliably voted Democrat. The other four electoral districts vote solidly Republican. Ordinarily, this little hiccup in the system wouldn't matter much. But 2024 represents a uniquely precarious moment."

In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama won that one electoral vote in the district around Omaha.

But now, Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen wants to end that split electoral vote.

Pillen recently declared, "I strongly support statewide unity and joining 48 other states by awarding all five of our Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of Nebraskans' votes. As I have also made clear, I am willing to convene the (Nebraska State) Legislature for a special session to fix this 30-year-old problem before the 2024 election. However, I must receive clear and public indication that 33 senators are willing to vote in such a session to restore winner-take-all."

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Marche fears that Nebraska could be one of the states making the 2024 election troublesome and chaotic.

"The Electoral College was the product of an 18th-Century agrarian society whose capitol sat a hundred miles from virgin forest," Marche argues. "At this point in history, it is little more than a legitimacy crisis in progress. The founders built their system to avoid exactly the kind of situation that the erasure of the district Omaha, Nebraska, would represent: the possibility of democracy in bad faith and by name only."

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Stephen Marche's full Guardian op-ed is available at this link.