A top Donald Trump ally is pressuring Nebraska Republicans to award all of their state’s Electoral College votes to the statewide winner, a late-stage rule change that would potentially help return Trump to the White House.

A top Donald Trump ally is pressuring Nebraska Republicans to award all of their state’s Electoral College votes to the statewide winner, a late-stage rule change that could potentially help return Trump to the White House.

The Electoral College is a group of people chosen by each state who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States based on how their state’s popular vote went. Pennsylvania is a winner-takes-all state, which means the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state gets all 19 Electoral College votes.

Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden was buoyed by victories in the “blue wall” states of the Upper Midwest,

Maine Democrats were supposed to come to her rescue. But a top state official says they likely missed their window.

For months, Nebraska and Maine have engaged in a standoff over possible changes to their electoral college votes, but a missed deadline in Maine means Nebraska Republicans can toss an extra electoral vote to Trump without fear of retaliation from Maine Democrats.

As Republicans in Nebraska contemplate a significant change to their state’s Electoral College vote distribution to potentially benefit Donald Trump, their counterparts in Maine find themselves with limited options to counterbalance this move.