There is no place like Nebraska.  Well, Maine is like Nebraska.  But just Nebraska and Maine are the only two places where the states divide the Electoral College votes. 

We really dodged a bullet here.  If the push had been made earlier in the Unicameral session to change the way we vote for President, we might have lost our unique way of distributing our electoral votes. 

But that’s not all we would have lost.  We would have lost millions of dollars in revenue as Presidential campaigns spent money on TV,Digital,Radio and even Newspaper ads.  We would have lost the revenue from campaign operatives coming into the state to work for their candidates. We would have lost the revenue generated when a candidate comes to town for a big rally. We would have lost the national attention we get every four years when political commentators talk about how our one Electoral vote could change the outcome of the election.  And most importantly we would have lost our say in just who our President should be. 

Yes there is no place like Nebraska and we need to keep it that way.  Instead of Republicans working to make us like everybody else we should be working to make everybody else be like us.   Nebraska ( and Maine ) are doing it right when it comes to Presidential elections. 

Imagine a system where Republican voices could be heard in California, or Democratic voices could be heard in Mississippi.  Places where a state’s minority party has a stronghold in a region, but not enough of a stronghold to sway the entire state.  Shouldn’t their voices be heard as well? 

You don’t have to imagine a system like that. There already is one and we are doing it. Our way of electing a President combines the best of both worlds allowing all people to have a louder voice in who they elect. Our system combines the Electoral College with the Popular vote. 

There are those who want to get rid of the electoral college all together and just focus on the popular vote. That would be a disaster.   The candidates would just focus on places like New York, California, Texas, Florida and a few other populated states and the rest of the country in places like Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Arkansas, and 35 or more other states would be completely ignored.

Yes Nebraska does it right.  And we shouldn’t be pressured into changing just because some out of state political commentator can get the former President and current defend-ants’ ear to start pressuring our State Senators to make the change.

If Donald Trump doesn’t want to lose this district like he did 4 years ago then he should come to town and make his case. Spend some money and work for it.  Likewise ,President Biden can’t take the Second Congressional Districts vote for granted either. Show us how much you want our support. Come November we will not be ignored. 

Of course, if Governor Pillen and other Republicans are worried about losing this one elec-toral vote to the Democrats there is a simple solution.  The Republicans just need to run better candidates.   We have voted for Republican Presidential candidates in all but 2 elec-tions.   The Republicans have won this district in the past without suppressing the vote.

And that’s what it would be if we did change. Voter suppression pure and simple.  If they can’t win it fair and square they’ll just take away the oppositions voice and give the minority party no reason to vote for President.  Better candidates give the Republicans a better chance at winning.

Yes, there is indeed no place like Nebraska with our Unicameral, our urban and rural divide and of course our Runzas. 

Nebraska, There’s no other place like it. We need to bask in our uniqueness.  We need to invite the other states to join us.  Let them be different just like us.   But even if they don’t want to be like us there is absolutely no good reason for us to be more like them.  We need to keep our divided Electoral College vote.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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