'Compelled to act': Maine plans counterattack if Trump's new election tactic works

A top Maine Democrat says her party will take action if Nebraska Republicans move to change their electoral college rules to help Donald Trump.

House majority leader Maureen Terry said Friday that if Nebraska’s Republican governor signs legislation that allows for a winner-take-all election in the state in 2024, the Democratic-controlled Legislature would “be compelled to act in order to restore fairness," Politico reported.

Maine and Nebraska awards some of their electoral votes according to which candidate wins individual congressional districts, which would seemingly allow Trump to win one Electoral College vote from Maine and Joe Biden winning one from Nebraska.

The Nebraska GOP now wants to block any chances for President Joe Biden to earn an electoral college vote by winning the state’s Omaha-district. While a bill for such a change remains stagnant in the Legislature, a new push from Trump supporters to push the bill through is resurrecting its potential.

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“I am steadfast in my commitment to get winner-take-all over the finish line, thereby honoring our constitutional founding, unifying our state and ending the three-decade-old mistake of allocating Nebraska’s electoral votes differently than all but one other state,” Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has said.

If the legislation is successful, it would block Biden’s simplest path to reelection -- "holding the three 'Blue Wall' states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while also winning Nebraska’s 2nd District, a blue-trending seat based in Omaha," Politico's report stated.

“Voters in Maine and voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District value their independence, but they also value fairness and playing by the rules,” Terry said. “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.”