We are less than two months from the election, and things are practically white-hot now. The UK Guardian ran a breaking story yesterday headlined, “
Republicans step up effort to change Nebraska voting rules to help Trump.” Of
course it’s to help Trump. Who
else does the Guardian think Republicans should help? Harris? The Haitians?
You probably weren’t even
thinking about Nebraska. Back in 1992, Nebraska changed the way the state allocated its five electoral college votes. It created a unique, overly complicated allocation system with districts, basically allowing for mix-and-match voting to give Democrats at least one reliable electoral vote each cycle.
Believe it or not, Nebraska could conceivably decide the 2024 race. It
could be that close. Here’s how the New York Times described the math of how a single Nebraska electoral vote (the blue Omaha district) might tip the race in Trump’s favor:
Republicans moved quickly this week to revert Nebraska to a simple winner-takes-all system, like most states. The change would require a two-thirds majority of the Nebraska Senate. So the key vote has boiled down to a suddenly famous former Democrat,
Senator Mike McDonnell.
McDonnell is a Catholic who joined the Republican party
just this year after his own party censured him over opposing transgender surgeries for minors. McDonnell has also vowed he would never support “winner takes all” in Nebraska, but the Guardian says he is now “wavering.”
Waver harder.
Maine is the only other state that uses a similar system. Last year, Maine Democrats swore that, if Nebraska’s Republicans moved to revert to a “winner takes all” system, then Maine would do the same thing, thereby neutralizing the effect of the Nebraska change.
But chess-playing Nebraska Republicans waited till the last minute, making a comparable Maine change now impossible, since Maine’s rules require 90 days before a bill can become effective.
According to the Times’ version, Senator McDonnell’s phone is now blowing up with calls and text messages from all over the country, if not the world. McDonnell is in the spotlight, under immense pressure to keep his original promise and not help Republicans change Nebraska’s electoral allocation system.
So … C&Cers from Nebraska, contact Senator McDonnell and express your support for winner-takes-all: (402) 471-2710;
mmcdonnell@leg.ne.gov. Do it right now!
Yesterday, NPR ran another intensely encouraging story headlined, “
Georgia's Republican-led election board OKs controversial rule to hand-count ballots.” Finally!
Yesterday —pushing through opposition from the state’s own Republican Secretary of State and Attorney General— the state’s conservative election board approved a rule requiring
hand counts of voter ballots in November’s election.
They’re to count the numbers of
ballots, not the individual races.
In other words, they’ll be double-checking the electronic machines. Technically, each voting precinct’s local supervisor is required to hand-count the cast ballots, and cross-check those results against how many ballots the electronic machines claim to have tabulated.
NPR whined that, according to
experts, hand-counting is slower and less reliable than electronic tabulation. Thanks, Captain Obvious, for pointing out hand counting is slower. But whether it is less reliable — well, that one seems debatable.
Why not count them? Counting cast ballots at the precinct level hardly seems impossible. One suspects all the hysteria must be for a different reason.
On top of that great news, the board passed six
other rule changes yesterday. The new rules included: allowing poll watchers to access more places during vote tabulation, daily posting of the numbers of people in each county who cast ballots, and publicly posting reconciliation reports to the county website.
All these rules, including the counting of bare ballots, are designed to make cheating harder and easier to catch. Keep them guessing. Good things are happening, so keep your spirits up.
Governor DeWine defends Haitian Invasion, badly; pervert Dr. Varma gets corporate media's attention, a little; Routh reporting still raising eyebrows; two great last-minute election changes; more.
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