Nebraska, since 1992, uses a congressional district allocation method to allocate its electoral votes. Maine, since 1972, also uses this method. Nebraska has three congressional districts; add two electoral votes for the two U.S. Senators, and Nebraska has five electoral votes.
Here’s how the congressional district method works. Candidates receive one electoral vote for each congressional district won. The popular vote winner in the state gets the remaining two.
Never have either Nebraska or Maine actually split their electoral vote. This year, however, could be different in the Cornhusker State. The Nebraska Second Congressional District, as of this writing, is up for grabs. Omaha is in NE-2, and according to WOWT in Omaha:
Barack Obama trails John McCain by 569 votes in unofficial returns from the district.
Election officials estimate there are 9,000 uncounted provisional and absentee ballots in Douglas County alone. Sarpy County estimates there are 1,000 provisionals yet to be counted. Counties have seven days to verify and count the remaining ballots.
This, of course, is of particular interest to me after my thesis project on the Electoral College charted results of past presidential elections using the district allocation method.
Whether or not NE-2 goes for Obama, the possibility is exciting for political junkies like me.
(Side note: once all vote returns are processed in the several states, I will be updating my thesis to include 2008 election data!)
