LINCOLN- Former State Senator DiAnna Schimek and Senator Ernie Chambers can be credited with the state's unique electoral college system. Ernie Chambers can also be credited with blocking legislation trying to reform that system in the years following its adoption. Schimek heard of the idea of allowing electoral votes to be decided by the popular vote in the state's congressional districts at a conference in 1990. In the 1991 session, she introduced the bill.

Following the bill‘s introduction, the state Republican Party got breath of the bill and worked hard to block the legislation through letters to senators. However, Schimek said nonpartisanship was taken more seriously back then, and the letters largely went ignored. Schimek said people understood the goal was to make sure everyone felt as though their vote actually mattered.

Following the adoption of the split electoral votes, attacks on the system have been introduced in the legislature to return to a winner-take-all state. These attacks gained momentum following the 2008 win of one electoral vote by then Senator Barack Obama.The last attempt to bring back the winner-take-all system was in 2017 and was introduced by Sen. John Murante. The Nebraskan Republican Party says the current system unfairly prioritizes a small group of voters, and a move to return to winner-take-all is once again expected following President-Elect Biden’s success in gaining the 2nd congressional district’s single electoral vote.

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