LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- An unusual twist in how Nebraska picks presidents could be straightened into the same format 48 other states use under a bill that has the backing of Gov. Dave Heineman's political party -- Republicans.

Twice in the 1990's the Legislature voted to ditch an electoral system that parses out the state's electoral votes, but the bills were vetoed by then-Gov. Ben Nelson, a Democrat. The backing of Republicans who now have a fellow Republican in the governor's seat increases chances that the bill -- which some political observers speculate would strengthen the party's hold on the state -- will become law if it passes through the Legislature.

"It's a power grab. It's an attempt to get all the marbles," Eric Fought, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, said of the bill (LB433).

Nebraska's Legislature is officially nonpartisan.

The current system has failed to make the state a national player in presidential politics as designed and has actually hurt the state's stature, said the executive director of the state Republican Party

"It's failed to live up to promises," said Tiffiny Carlton. "It dilutes the power we have as a state."

Only in Nebraska and Maine is it possible that total, statewide votes in presidential elections can favor one candidate but electoral votes that ultimately determine who is president go to more than one candidate. The statewide popular vote in most states dictates what candidate receives all electoral votes that are then tallied to elect presidents.

But in Nebraska, which has five electoral votes to cast for president, three of them are based on vote tallies inside the borders of each of the state's three Congressional districts. The remaining two are selected by statewide popular vote like in most other states.

Since the rare system was approved in 1991, the state's electoral votes have not been divided between different candidates because popular votes in each of the Congressional districts have awarded the same candidates as the statewide votes.

Lawmakers believed that the system would heighten the state's status on the national political stage by encouraging candidates to come to the state to jockey for pieces of Nebraska's electoral pie.

"Nobody showed up," Sen. Mike Friend of Omaha, who introduced the bill, told a legislative committee Thursday. "They're not coming."

Friend says the current system holds the potential to reward fringe candidates who could target one congressional district by flooding it with campaign money.

"We have a statutory language here that more or less makes us stick out like a sore thumb," and does little but give television commentators the opportunity to say, "keep an eye on Maine and Nebraska -- not that it means anything," Friend said.

Another bill (LB460) attempts to increase the state's presidential profile in another way than what was envisioned with the current electoral system. Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha wants to get rid of presidential primaries in favor of caucuses, held earlier in the year, such as what is done in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Political visibility aside, the current electoral system in the state is a good one because it empowers voters in a national system that is broken because presidents are picked based on electoral, not popular, votes, said Sen. Bill Avery of Lincoln.

"With what we have now you can have each Congressional district at least know their votes count," Avery said.