American Thinker "Christopher Suprun, an elector from Texas, writes in an op-ed published in the New York Times on December 6, saying he will not cast his vote for Donald J. Trump. Mr. Suprun urges his Electoral College colleagues to "unity behind a Republican alternative."
"Mr. Suprun – it is not clear how he got to be an elector – cites Federalist No. 68 for guidance. He does not, however, refer to the following passage from No. 68:
. . .It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States. But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief. The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes. And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place.
Suprun signed a pledge this summer to support the Republican nominee. He lied.
. . . "Texas law doesn’t mandate that electors vote according to the results of the state’s presidential election, which Trump won by nine percentage points over Hillary Clinton. Suprun and the GOP’s other electors signed pledges at the state Republican convention in Dallas this summer promising to vote for their party’s nominee, but those aren’t legally binding.
“ 'I’m expecting backlash, but that has been par for the course this campaign. People are unhappy. They’re angry. But I’m angry, too,” said Suprun, who said that prior to changing his mind he had received hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls urging him not to support Trump."
