My wife @RebeccaSittler, a Nebraska native, reminded me today of why NE splits its electoral votes.

If Biden does not win PA, NE's single electoral vote (from districts around Omaha) will be why he has 270. THIS lone blue dot.

The reason is Ernie Chambers.

This is Ernie Chambers, who just retired. He was the only person to term out TWICE. He served in the Legislature from 1971 to 2009, and again from 2013 to present.

He's known for backing progressive policies with no-nonsense attitude.

He's supported ending corporal punishment in public schools, (attempting to) end the death penalty, and changing state rules to ensure equal pensions for women.

He REALLY likes short-sleeve sweatshirts.

But back in the 60s, he was a barber and activist who protested racial inequality.

You can see him in the documentary "A Time for Burning."

Nebraska has a unicameral legislature.

Its the result of George Norris, a "new deal" republican, who modeled it after British Parliament, mostly to save money, in 1937. This dude.

You'll see why this matters in a second.

Splitting electoral votes, rather than "winner take all," was established in Nebraska in 1992.

Obama won the 2nd district in 2008, but lost it in 2012. Clinton lost it in '16.

Republicans hate it, for obvious reasons, and have been trying to get it changed since 92.

The closest they got was in 2016, when Ernie filibustered the vote to continue splitting electoral college votes.

He argued that it was more democratic: "It means that now when people start organizing at the neighborhood level, it matters because we can get one of those votes."

Yes, the man wore a short-sleeve sweatshirt to filibuster.

I wasn't kidding that Ernie loves sweatshirts.

So thank Ernie as he retires, for his long career. First elected in 1970, he was reelected 11 (!) times.

He's done all this.

And also kept the electoral college be less astoundingly racist, by not letting votes get diluted into winner-take all.

https://omaha.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/facts-and-figures-from-ernie-chambers-time-in-nebraska-legislature/article_58cbe329-c472-56e0-856f-7540022aba19.html

If you want to read more about Ernest Chambers, and the work he put in to counter racism in Omaha, please check out the book "Free Radical"

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Radical-Chambers-Politics-Histories/dp/0896729834

Also, obv, abolish the electoral college.

And make short-sleeve sweatshirts cool again. I celebrate all of Ernie's 60s-70s styles, but seriously have a whole folder of Ernie in sweatshirts.

And watch Ernie during his days as an activist firebrand in A Time for Burning here, for free.

"They're in for a surprise. Everyone is."

— Ernie Chambers in 1970, during his first campaign for Legislature https://archive.org/details/atimeforburning/atimeforburningreel1.avi

Also this blew up so for the record no I don't have Ernie's personal cell... I just married a smart, leftie rural Nebraskan they exist