Democrats can still hope to change Nebraska to purple

Many voters learned in 2000 to be weary of states being called for a candidate before all the votes are in. This year, Nebraska voters are learning this lesson first-hand.Although many major media outlets initially called all of Nebraska for Republican John McCain, Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District - and its one electoral vote - remains in play following the announcement of unofficial election results early Wednesday morning.

In the 2nd District, president-elect Barack Obama trails McCain by only 569 votes with thousands of last-minute absentee and provisional ballots remaining to be counted.

Absentee ballots cast Monday and Tuesday are expected to be counted by Friday, Dave Phipps, Douglas County election commissioner, said Wednesday afternoon. He estimated that there were "probably a couple thousand" absentee ballots remaining uncounted.

Provisional ballots will be counted by Nov. 13, Phipps said. He estimated another several thousand provisional ballots were cast and that perhaps half of them would be counted, depending on how many are found to be valid by election workers.

Phipps described provisional ballots as a fail-safe mechanism to ensure voters aren't disenfranchised. He said many provisional ballots were cast by people who moved within Douglas County but failed to reregister for their new polling places. Some were also cast by early voters who failed to submit their absentee ballots, either because they were lost, damaged or never received by the voter.

Nebraska and Maine are unique among the 50 states in allowing their votes in the Electoral College to be split between candidates, although it has yet to happen in either state. Democrats have hoped in recent presidential elections to turn Nebraska "purple," a combination of blue and red on national election maps.

Nebraska's five electoral votes are awarded by one vote going to the winner of each Congressional district and two votes going to the statewide winner. McCain secured four of those votes Tuesday, although McCain lost to Obama overall by a large margin in the Electoral College.

According to results from the McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, Obama received 364 electoral votes to McCain's 173 votes - those figures include North Carolina's projected 15 vote for Obama and Missouri's projected 11 votes for McCain, but does not include the 2nd District's lone electoral vote. Only 270 electoral votes were necessary for either candidate to win the election.

The race was closer with the popular vote, however, with 52 percent of voters favoring Obama to 46 percent favoring McCain. Third-party candidates - including Green candidate Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr and independent candidate Ralph Nader - collected 1 percent of the popular vote.

The third-party candidates might have had a significant impact on the 2nd District, however, with both Nader and Barr earning more votes than the difference between McCain and Obama.

Nader received 1,184 votes in Douglas County, and Barr received 698 votes. McKinney received 213 votes in the county, while Nebraska Party candidate Chuck Baldwin received 412 votes. Another 708 voters chose to write-in a candidate for president.

The slim margin between Obama and McCain might trigger an automatic recount in the District, which is composed of Douglas County and a portion of traditionally conservative Sarpy County.

Under Nebraska law, a recount must be done if a candidate loses by less than 1 percent of the votes received by the winning candidate - that number stands at a margin of 1,263 votes as of Wednesday evening, more than twice the 569 votes separating Obama and McCain. The losing candidate can choose to waive his right to a recount.

If a recount is triggered, however, it wouldn't be conducted until after the State Canvass Board meets on Dec. 1 to certify the official results of the election. Phipps said such a recount would be done in early December and would be done, by law, in the exact same manner as the first count, which is by optical scanners at the election commission headquarters.

The purpose of a recount, Phipps said, is to make sure no ballot box was missed and to check that every vote was counted the first time. In his experience, Phipps said he has only seen a three or four vote change following a recount.

While tearing down the Obama campaign headquarters at 343 N. 76th St., Erin Fitzgerald, the campaign's Nebraska communications director, declined to comment on the close margin or the possibility of the recount.

In other local races, former Gov. Mike Johanns handily defeated Democratic challenger Scott Kleeb to replace Chuck Hagel in the Senate. Johanns received 58 percent of the vote statewide, while Kleeb managed only 40 percent. Nebraska Party candidate Kelly Renee Rosberg and Green Party candidate Steven Larrick each also received 1 percent.

Republican Lee Terry retained his seat in the House of Representatives, defeating challenger Jim Esch 132,505 votes to 119,917 votes. Terry joins Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith, both of whom also retained their seats.

UNO theatre professor Doug Paterson won 5 percent of the vote for public service commissioner, losing to Democrat Anne Boyle, who received 61 percent. Paterson was running for the Green Party.

Jack Heidel, chairman of the mathematics department, also lost his bid for a seat on the Learning Community Coordinating Council. He received 12 percent of the vote in District 3, but fell to Lorraine Chang, who received 28 percent in the nine-candidate race.

Former Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers also secured a seat on the council, winning a six-candidate race for District 2 with an overwhelming 49 percent of the vote.

Andrew Northwall, a UNO student who took a semester off to work for the McCain campaign, received 17.2 percent of the vote for the Ralston Public Schools Board of Education. Linda Richards, however, received 30.7 percent of the vote to win the seat.