Nebraska certifies split electoral votes for Trump, Harris

Nebraska’s five electoral votes were officially cast Tuesday afternoon at the state capitol.

Members of both parties filled Governor Jim Pillen's hearing room for the event.

President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance received four votes each, while Kamala Harris and Tim Walz received one vote each.

Fanchon Blythe, Jason Hayes, J.L. Spray and Christine Vail cast their ballots for Trump and Vance.

The Harris and Walz votes came from Peg Lippert, who represented the 2nd Congressional District.

Lippert said the event wasn’t the celebratory day she had hoped for, but she was glad to represent Nebraska Democrats through her vote.

“It was a vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz," she said. "But more importantly, it was a vote for the continuation of our democracy and our Constitution, which both feel a little threatened right now."

Vail, a Republican who said she first got into politics when Trump rode down the escalator to announce his candidacy in 2015, cast her ballot on behalf of Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District.

“My goal was to help Donald Trump be elected, and today I fulfilled that by casting this vote for him," she said.

Nebraska was one of two states, along with Maine, to split its electoral votes among different candidates. Pillen has listed returning the state to winner-take-all as one of his priorities for the upcoming legislative session. Vail said she would support the move.

"I believe that we should be with all the other states when it comes to this," she said. "We are the one single state that is a predominantly red state, and would always go red, except for Omaha."

But Lippert, who cast the lone vote for Harris and Walz, told Pillen she hopes the system remains for future elections.

"Until we had a split electoral vote, I knew my vote didn't count as a Democrat in an otherwise Republican state," she said. "Not only is it a fairer way to hear the voice of the people, but it puts Nebraska on the map in the national news and brings otherwise absent campaigns to the state."

An elector for the Robert F. Kennedy campaign, Cordelia Okoye, also spoke during the time for public comment, saying she was disappointed when Kennedy suspended his campaign but was happy with how things ultimately turned out.