Obama Wins Nebraska Electoral Vote

From our Hell-Freezing-Over Department we have the news that my home state of Nebraska has finally made me proud in a presidential election. The Omaha World-Herald reported on Saturday that President-elect Barack Obama has taken one of Nebraska's five electoral votes after it was confirmed this weekend that he won the area encompassing Omaha and some extended suburbs.

Nebraska is one of only two states (along with Maine) that separates electoral votes in presidential elections, awarding one electoral vote for each congressional district carried plus two for the statewide winner.

From the World-Herald:

Obama won 8,434 of 15,039 mail-in ballots counted Friday by Douglas County election officials. These early ballots arrived in the election commissioner's office too late to be included in Tuesday's election results.

The additional votes gave Obama a 1,260-vote lead over Republican John McCain in unofficial returns. McCain won the popular vote statewide and four electoral votes.

About 5,000 provisional ballots in Douglas County remain to be counted next week, but they are unlikely to change the 2nd District outcome. About half of such ballots typically are disqualified.

"We always knew we could do it, but it would be an uphill climb. It's great to see a little corner of Nebraska turn blue," said John Berge, state director for the Obama campaign.

So this may be as blue as we ever see my home state:



With Missouri still outstanding, this gives Obama 365 electoral votes -- or 200 more than the 162 picked up by John McCain. Presidential mandate anyone?

In other signs that even the deepest-red states may be starting to turn the corner on racism, Obama picked up a total of 41 percent of the vote in Nebraska. Not great, but that compares to the 33 percent and 32 percent won there by Al Gore and John Kerry, respectively.

So while race may still be a factor in places like Nebraska, there's evidence to suggest that the content of Obama's character -- thank you, Dr. King -- carried the day even there.