Why Maine couldn't stop the Republicans' advance in Nebraska in the Electoral College

Republicans at the federal level are making a last-minute push to make Nebraska a winner-take-all presidential election to help Donald Trump in November, but Maine is essentially running out of time to counter it.

Democratic-led Maine and Republican-led Nebraska are the only two states in the country that apportion Electoral College votes by congressional districts, awarding two at-large electors to the statewide winner. Maine has two congressional districts, while Nebraska has three.

The news: Nebraska's Republican governor, Jim Pillen, hosted 24 senators and Nebraska's top election official on Wednesday to gauge support for a winner-take-all system before calling a special session, which he reportedly plans to convene no later than next week.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) skipped the votes on Capitol Hill to go to Nebraska and urge senators in the 49-seat unicameral legislature to support the amendment. Pillen said he needs 33 senators firmly committed to supporting the winner-take-all principle before he can call a special session. At least one state senator said Pillen does not yet have that number.

The big picture: In April, Pillen and Trump spoke out in favor of changing the system in Nebraska to a “winner-take-all” system after conservative activist Charlie Kirk urged Nebraskans should stop “senselessly empowering their political enemies.”

President Joe Biden, whom Vice President Kamala Harris replaced at the top of the Democratic ticket, received one vote in Nebraska in 2020 by winning the Omaha-area 2nd Congressional District, while Trump won all five of the state's electoral votes in 2016.

No Republican presidential candidate has won in Maine since 1988, although Trump won the 2nd District in 2016 and 2020. Maine's bipartisan lawmakers said in April that they like the current system, which splits votes by district, even though Democrats favor a statewide popular vote.

But Maine House Majority Leader Mo Terry (D-Gorham) said the same month that the legislature would be “forced” to consider a special session if Nebraska changed its system.

What’s next: Nebraska still has some time to reconsider this move, while Maine has virtually no recourse. After the election, each state's electors must meet on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is December 17.

As of Wednesday, there were 90 days left until Dec. 17. Any legislation in Maine establishing a winner-take-all system would need that much time to take effect because Republicans in the House would deny Democrats the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to pass a bill immediately.

What they say: Maine Democrats never really got behind Terry's call in April to respond to Nebraska's every move. Terry said at the time that she and her colleagues hoped Nebraska Republicans would not “make this desperate and ill-fated attempt to influence the 2024 election.”

“Maine has the gold standard for presidential election procedures in the United States,” said Billy Bob Faulkingham, Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, on Thursday, echoing his party's position. “We should try to persuade other states to use a more representative procedure like ours, rather than go to the winner-takes-all principle like other states.”