Elector pledged to Donald Trump resigns from Electoral College in protest

| 8:21 am EST November 28, 2016
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In the weeks since Donald Trump was named the winner of the 2016 presidential election despite numerous voting irregularities and the fact that Hillary Clinton got two million more votes than he did, there have been various rumblings from within the Electoral College. But until now, most of those rumblings have come from Electors whose states have assigned them to vote for Hillary Clinton, and their goal has been to convince their fellow Electors assigned to Trump to bail on him. Now, however, one of Trump’s own pledged Electors says he can’t go through with his vote.

Donald Trump won the state of Texas, meaning that all of the state’s Electors are pledged to vote for him no matter their personal beliefs toward him. But one of those Electors, Art Sisneros, says that he just can’t do it. Although he’s a Republican himself, he views Trump as being “unqualified” for the office. So as he first announced here and has been documented elsewhere, he’s resigning his position.

In this instance, his decision to resign in advance means that Texas will replace him with another Elector, who will presumably go through with voting for Trump. But while this doesn’t take an electoral vote away from Trump, it’s key in that it points to just how many Republican Electors in red states may be struggling with whether they can cast their votes for someone as unfit as Trump.

Sisneros could have remained in his role as an Elector and simply cast his vote for some other candidate such as Hillary Clinton, or cast no vote at all. Instead he chose to walk away entirely, in protest. But it means we don’t know just how many other Trump-pledged Electors, who feel the same way Sisneros does, may be planning to reject him when the Electoral College casts its votes on December 19th.