Elector Art Sisneros via Facebook
Art Sisneros, a Republican elector from East Texas, said as a Christian he can’t vote for Donald Trump when the Electoral College meets on Dec. 18. Rather than be a “faithless elector,” someone who votes for a candidate other than the one who received the majority of votes in the state, he will resign.
“The Electors were to be men who were selected to make this vote based on their own discernment,” Sisneros wrote in a blog post. “There is no indication that Electors were ever to be directed by the population at large on how to vote. Their votes were to be their own, made in the best interest of those they represented.”
In his post, Sisneros explains the constitutional wording that allows him to vote for someone else or resign. He also talks about George Washington’s warning and warnings in the Federalist Papers, presumably written by Alexander Hamilton, about political parties and how they would interfere with the work of the Electoral College.
“The Electoral College was corrupted from its original intent once states started dictating the votes of the Electors,” he wrote. “The two biggest aggressors to the original system were from political parties and the switch to winner-take-all states.”
He said he did sign a pledge given to him by the Republican Party to vote for the winner, but said his conscience does not allow him to cast his vote that way.
In another post he wrote, “I do not see how Donald Trump is biblically qualified to serve in the office of the Presidency. Of the hundreds of angry messages that I have received, not one has made a convincing case from scripture otherwise. If Trump is not qualified and my role, both morally and historically, as an elected official is to vote my conscience, then I can not and will not vote for Donald Trump for President.”
However, since Sisneros will resign from the Electoral College, the Republican Party may name a replacement.
“The reality is Trump will be our President, no matter what my decision is,” Sisneros wrote. “Many are furious that I am willing to have this discussion publicly. Personally, I wish more civil officers would be honest about their convictions. Assuming a Trump Presidency is their ultimate goal, they will get that. The problem is, that isn’t what they want. They want a democracy.”
