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Maine and Nebraska are outliers in how they award Electoral College votes for president. They should both keep it that way.
The only reason we’re having this discussion right now, months before a presidential election, is because one of the candidates cynically wants to change the system — not because of some consistent or thoughtful ideological objection, but because of pure and unvarnished self-interest.
Former President Donald Trump wants Nebraska to ditch its decades-old approach of splitting up Electoral College votes, with two going to the statewide popular vote winner and one to the winner in each congressional district. Notably, he and his allies haven’t launched the same pressure campaign here in Maine, the only other state with this same approach.
“Most Nebraskans have wanted to go back to this system for a very long time, because it’s what 48 other States do — It’s what the Founders intended, and it’s right for Nebraska,” Trump posted online in early April. “Thank you Governor for your Bold leadership. Let’s hope the Senate does the right thing. Nebraskans, respectfully ask your Senators to support this Great Bill!”
If it’s what the Founders intended, and if it’s right for Nebraska, then surely it must be right for Maine too? Not so fast. Despite Maine and Nebraska having the same system, Trump hasn’t made the same argument here. This should prove to Nebraska lawmakers and the general public, unambiguously, that Trump isn’t truly making this push to do what is right for Nebraska. This is clearly about what is right for Trump.
In Nebraska, the system could cost Trump an electoral vote, as it did in 2020 when Joe Biden picked up one of the state’s five electoral votes by winning in Nebraska’s more liberal 2nd District. So obviously, from the perspective of Trump world, this needs to change. But in Maine, the system could gain him a vote, as it did in both 2016 and 2020 in Maine’s more conservative 2nd Congressional District, and he and his allies have applied no such pressure here.
The hypocrisy couldn’t be anymore obvious. It should almost go without saying, but any changes to how we vote should be made based on what is best for voters, not individual politicians or political parties.
Nebraska lawmakers across the political spectrum should continue to resist this transparent hypocrisy. Any attempt to make this last-minute change to their voting system through a special session should be resoundingly defeated and dismissed as the rushed power grab that it is. And Maine lawmakers should resist getting pulled into the same kind of hypocrisy here.
What Trump, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen and others are trying to do in Nebraska is politics at its worst. That doesn’t mean Maine should follow suit in response.
“Voters in Maine and voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District value their independence, but they also value fairness and playing by the rules,” Maureen Terry, the Democratic House Majority Leader here in Maine, said in a statement last Friday. “If Nebraska’s Republican governor and Republican-controlled Legislature were to change their electoral system this late in the cycle in order to unfairly award Donald Trump an additional electoral vote, I think the Maine Legislature would be compelled to act in order to restore fairness to our country’s electoral system.”
We believe that voters across Maine also know that two wrongs don’t make a right. Nebraska should not be changing its voting system on the eve of an election and simply to help a particular candidate. However, Maine shouldn’t hinge its voting system on the unfairness — perceived or real — of that possible action. Maine elections should be run in a way that is best for Maine voters, not as a political response to hypocrisy in other states.
Maine and Nebraska may be alone with their current method of allocating Electoral College votes, but sometimes it is a good thing to stand out from the crowd. As Bangor Daily News columnist Michael Cianchette convincingly wrote in March, while arguing against Maine joining the National Popular Vote Compact, more states should be following the Maine and Nebraska model of splitting Electoral College votes. The Maine Legislature did approve legislation, and Gov. Janet Mills allowed it to become law without her signature, to join the national compact that would essentially bypass the Electoral College system in favor of a national popular vote for president if enough states join in.
The Maine and Nebraska model, as Cianchette pointed out, recognizes geographic differences within the states and gets presidential campaigns to consider them, leading to attention and engagement that Maine and Nebraska otherwise might not get. Both states should hold on to that influence, and reject any further efforts to change their election systems so late in an election year.
