A proposal to dump Nebraska’s distinctive presidential electoral system and establish a statewide winner-take-all vote was trapped Tuesday by a filibuster and buried by the Legislature. A motion to invoke cloture and bring an end to legislative debate fell one senator short of the 33 votes required to proceed with the bill, failing on a 32-17 count. Sens. Tommy Garrett of Bellevue and Bob Krist of Omaha switched from their support for a cloture motion a week ago that had allowed the bill (LB10) to proceed to a final vote this week. The result is that Nebraska will continue to allocate its five electoral votes by awarding one to the winner in each of the three congressional districts and two to the statewide victor.
That means metropolitan Omaha’s 2nd Congressional District will be in play again this presidential election year.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with the active encouragement of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, already has signaled her interest in competing for that vote if she is her party’s nominee.
President Barack Obama won that single electoral vote in Nebraska in 2008.
Full Article: Winner-take-all electoral vote fails | Nebraska Legislature | journalstar.com.