AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine House Majority Leader Mo Terry said Friday the Legislature would be “compelled” to consider a special session if Nebraska Republicans switch their state to a winner-take-all system to help former President Donald Trump win in November.
The remarks from Terry, a Democrat from Gorham, in a Friday morning email to “friends and colleagues” are not a guarantee of any action coming from Maine lawmakers, who adjourned last week. Members in both parties said this month they like Maine’s existing system for now that splits Electoral College votes between the winner in its two congressional districts along with giving the statewide winner two at-large electors.
But Terry’s comments are a reminder of how quickly things could change if Republicans who control Nebraska’s legislative body and governor’s office follow through on a winner-take-all change ahead of Trump’s November rematch with President Joe Biden.
“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,” Terry wrote. “It is my hope and the hope of my colleagues in Maine that the Nebraska Republican Party decides not to make this desperate and ill-fated attempt to sway the 2024 election.”
Maine and Nebraska may be more than 1,000 miles away from each other, but their connection is they are the only states that split Electoral College votes by congressional district, with Nebraska having three districts and five total votes to Maine’s four electoral votes.
Maine led the nation in adopting the system under a 1969 law that Nebraska then followed in 1991 in an effort to receive more attention from White House contenders. Earlier in April, however, Nebraska’s Republican governor came out in support of a bill to change the state to a winner-take-all system for presidential elections, hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk urged Nebraskans to “stop pointlessly giving strength to their political enemies.”
Trump praised Gov. Jim Pillen’s comments. Biden earned one electoral vote from an Omaha-area district in 2020. Kirk and conservatives have been clear in sharing they believe a switch to a winner-take-all system would likely help Trump sweep red Nebraska and possibly lead to a tie in the Electoral College results that the incoming U.S. House of Representatives’ state delegations would have to settle.
Still, various Republicans who make up a 33-member majority in Nebraska’s 49-member unicameral Legislature have not warmed to the idea, and the bill to change the state’s system did not have the votes to advance before adjournment this month. But Pillen said he would support holding a special session once there is enough support to pass the measure.
In Maine, the Democratic-controlled Legislature would need a special session to consider any changes to the presidential elector system, Terry confirmed to the Bangor Daily News. Support for doing so is uncertain, and Gov. Janet Mills has not commented on the matter.
Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, said in a Friday statement he has lived in the 2nd District his entire life and would not support changing Maine’s system.
“There are times in my life when my preferred candidate has won the lone electoral vote from [the 2nd District], and there have been times when my preferred candidate has lost,” Jackson said. “But I’d much rather work to elect a president that reflects my values and has to earn the votes of my friends and neighbors than change the rules, especially this close to an election.”
Still, earlier in April, Mills let a proposal become law without her signature for Maine to join an interstate compact that would give each state’s electoral votes to the national popular vote winner once states accounting for at least 270 votes join it. Maine gives the compact 209 votes.
Terry alluded Friday to the competing arguments on whether Maine should not let conservatives in another state dictate its election system or should not give Trump an advantage.
“Voters in Maine and voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District value their independence,” Terry said, “but they also value fairness and playing by the rules.”