Texas Elector Resigns to Avoid Going Against His Conscience to Vote for Biblically 'Unqualified' President

Donald Trump

Texas resident and Republican elector Art Sisneros resigned so that he does not have to cast a vote that went against his conscience, and became a "faithless elector."

Some of the state political parties require their electors to take an oath to vote for any candidate who receives the electoral votes in general election. Sisneros had taken this pledge as well. But he did not want to vote for Donald Trump, and neither did he want to break his pledge to vote for the most popular candidate. He resigned from his post, so as to be true to his conscience.

Sisneros wrote a long blog post explaining the Biblical view behind his decision, and how God commanded to choose a leader who fears God.

Sisneros joined the list of 157 "faithless electors" who are members of Electoral College but did not vote for their respective parties' chosen candidates for any reason. About 71 of these electors did not cast their vote because their candidate died before the college cast their votes. As many as 82 changed their votes, and three of them did not vote for any candidate.

Sisneros told Politico that he was first prompted by another person to become a "faithless" elector in order to create "chaos."

"I got talked into it by a guy who was trying to find enough faithless electors ... just for the sake of causing chaos," he said. "That was the plan."

Sisneros said he could have voted for any other candidate, but did not do it because he did not like any other alternatives.

He is supposed to have voted on December 19 to ratify the election results, but electors in Texas are expected to choose a replacement in the next few days.

A Supreme Court ruling (Ray vs Blair) permits states to require formal pledges from presidential electors, but 21 states have not implemented the law. The other 29 states and District of Columbia follow this rule and a minor rarely enforced fines for faithless electors.