Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an ally of former President Donald Trump, met with Nebraska legislators Wednesday to urge them to adopt a winner-take-all system in awarding the state’s Electoral College votes, according to multiple reports.

Meanwhile, Nebraska’s all-Republican congressional district, sent a letter to the state’s governor and Legislature speaker voicing their support for such a change.

Nebraska is one of two states — the other being Maine — that does not award all its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the state. Instead, the statewide winner receives two electoral votes, while Nebraska’s other three votes are doled out to the winner of each congressional district.

Nebraska is a deep red state, but Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden each won one electoral vote there in 2008 and 2020, respectively, because the Omaha area has more liberals than the rest of the state.

A single electoral vote in Nebraska could potentially impact the outcome of the election. For example, if Trump wins all five of Nebraska’s electoral votes as well as the swing states of Georgia, Arizona and Nevada and Vice President Kamala Harris wins Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the race would be tied at 269 electoral votes apiece. That would then send the election to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation casts a single vote, which would favor Trump.

If Nebraska continues with its current system and Harris is awarded one of its electoral votes, she would win under the same scenario. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' running mate and a Nebraska native, courted voters in the Omaha area last month.

Graham reportedly met with more than a dozen Republican legislators Wednesday at Gov. Jim Pillen’s mansion. 

Pillen, a Republican, said in a statement last week he strongly supports a winner-take-all process and is willing to call a special legislative session to “fix this 30-year-old problem before the 2024 election” but only if he has assurances that he has the 33 votes needed to pass a bill. 

Republican state Sen. Tom Brewer, who has confirmed the meeting with Graham, told the Nebraska Examiner he estimates there are currently 30 or 31 legislators who support the change. The GOP holds 33 seats in the state’s 50-seat unicameral Legislature.

“Depending on how the count comes up, it may very well decide who the next president United States is going be,” Brewer said in a separate interview with KOLN-TV. “And [Graham] just wanted us to understand the big picture, that this is a national issue, not just in Nebraska.”

State Sen. Loren Lippincott, also a Republican, told KOLN that Graham also discussed “the costs involved in having an extension of the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration.”

Lippincott added that he believes Graham’s visit “did move the needle.”

But time could be running out. The Nov. 5 election is 47 days away, and a change to the state’s electoral system could face legal challenges. 

Graham’s office, the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign have not responded to requests for comment from Spectrum News.

Nebraska’s congressional delegation sent a letter Wednesday to Pillen and Legislature Speaker John Arch saying they believe it “is past time that Nebraska join 48 other states in embracing winner-take-all in presidential elections.”

“Senators and Governors are elected by the state as a whole because they represent all of the people of Nebraska equally, and the state should speak with a united voice in presidential elections as well,” wrote Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts and Rep. Mike Flood, Don Bacon and Adrian Smith, all Republicans. 

“We urge you to work to return Nebraska to the status quo of appointing electoral votes based on winner-take-all,” they added.