Obama wins 1 of Nebraska's electoral votes

State splits electoral votes for first time

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updated 4:12 p.m. ET Nov. 14, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. - President-elect Barack Obama won one of Nebraska's electoral votes, the first time in history that the state has split its votes and the first time in 44 years that it had given a vote to a Democrat.

After remaining ballots were counted Friday, Obama had a 3,325-vote lead over Republican John McCain in unofficial results for the 2nd Congressional District. Nebraska and Maine are the two states that divide their electoral votes by congressional districts.

Obama, who won the White House last week, has 365 electoral votes to McCain's 162. Missouri, with 11 electoral votes, is still too close to call. Election officials in that state have until Tuesday to finish counting.

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The last Democrat to win Nebraska was Lyndon B. Johnson, who carried the state in 1964.

A 1991 state law allows Nebraska to divide its five electoral votes. Two go to the statewide winner and one is awarded from each of the state's three congressional districts.

McCain comfortably won the electoral votes tied to the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts. He also won the statewide race with about 57 percent of the vote in preliminary returns.

Obama aggressively sought the one electoral vote. He opened three campaign offices in the district and had 16 paid staff during the campaign.

As of Friday's unofficial results for the district, Obama has a total of 138,892 votes and McCain 135,567 votes. The Obama lead of 3,325 is far higher than the recount threshold of about 1,389, or 1 percent of Obama's total.