A member of the Texas electoral college has revealed he would rather resign his post than vote for Donald Trump, claiming that such a decision would allow him to sleep better at night.
Electoral college members are generally encouraged to side with the popular vote, but Art Sisneros is reluctant to back the President-elect on the grounds that he does not consider him ‘biblically qualified’.
‘I believe voting for Trump would bring dishonor to God,’ Sisneros writes in a blog post.
‘Since I can’t in good conscience vote for Donald Trump, and yet have sinfully made a pledge that I would, the best option I see at this time is to resign my position as an Elector.
‘I will sleep well at night knowing I neither gave in to their demands nor caved to my convictions. I will also mourn the loss of our republic.’
The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012
Trump won the electoral college vote in the November 8 election, having earlier secured the Republican nomination ahead of several other candidates, though Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.
Sisneros, however, has argued that ‘The Electoral College was corrupted from its original intent once states started dictating the votes of the Electors’.
‘The current pledges most political parties make Electors sign after they are elected is contrary to the original intent of the Constitution,’ he continues.
‘The fact that the pledge makes no mention of the biblical qualifications… necessary for one to serve as President makes it an immoral pledge.
Since Trump’s election victory, a recount request has been filed in Wisconsin, where the President-elect’s margin of victory was less than one percentage point, and in Pennsylvania, where the margin was just over 1%.
Trump has spent the weekend arguing that not only did he win the electoral vote but that he also won the popular vote ‘if illegally cast votes were to be deducted.’
It should be noted that this claim is entirely without foundation.
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