‘Blue dot’ signs popping up in Omaha aim to highlight importance of swing district
By Aaron Hegarty
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OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — About a week ago, an Omaha couple put a simple sign in their yard.
Jason Brown of the Dundee neighborhood painted over a lawn service yard sign with white paint. Then, he used a sawed-off bucket to paint a perfect circle in blue.
If no one mentioned it, it would have ended there, Brown and his wife Ruth Huebner-Brown said.
But across the street, a neighbor asked, then another neighbor asked. The Browns made about 10 signs for neighbors, then made 400 more.
On Sunday, they ran out of signs and are waiting on supplies to make 1,600 more. They’re also helping others get set up to make their own.
“We were shocked there were so many people that didn’t realize how it works,” Huebner-Brown said. “That we get our own vote here. They’re like, ‘Oh, we live in Nebraska, it’s a red state, I’m not going to bother to vote.’ And we’re like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do something!”
Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that don’t award all electoral votes to the state’s popular vote winner.
Nebraska has two winner-take-all electoral votes. But the other three go to the winner inside the boundaries of each congressional district.
“The blue dot could literally decide this election,” Brown said. “It could be that close.”
They would prefer that the country moves away from the Electoral College entirely, instead awarding the presidency to whoever wins the popular vote across the country.
“This is closer to it in Nebraska and Maine than anywhere else,” Huebner-Brown said. “And that’s such a privilege.”
This November will be the first presidential election since the boundaries of Nebraska’s congressional districts changed. The “blue dot” now includes all of Saunders County and fewer voters in Sarpy County.
Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama won the last four electoral votes from Nebraska’s second congressional district.
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