“Electors of conscience can still do the right thing for the good of the country,” the Texas elector wrote in an op-ed. | Getty
A Republican member of the Electoral College said on Monday that he will not be casting his vote for Donald Trump.
“The election of the next president is not yet a done deal,” Texas elector Christopher Suprun writes in an op-ed for the New York Times. “Electors of conscience can still do the right thing for the good of the country. Presidential electors have the legal right and a constitutional duty to vote their conscience.”
If Suprun follows through on his promise next month, he would become the first “faithless elector” since 2004.
Trump lacks the foreign policy experience to serve as commander in chief, writes Suprun, taking particular issue with the president-elect’s pick of retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn as his national security adviser. Trump’s business dealings might pose unacceptable conflicts of interest, Suprun adds — a problem that could seem him “impeached in his first year given his dismissive responses.”
The Electoral College is constitutionally required to convene before the results of the Nov. 8 presidential election are official. Usually these gatherings amount to nothing more than a rubber stamp, but this year electors have threatened to flee in record numbers. Twenty-six states, a group that does not include Texas, bind their electors to select the winner of the popular vote.