As TheBlaze covered yesterday, while the majority of the electoral votes in Texas went to President-elect Donald Trump, some went astray. One elector gave his vote to Ohio Governor John Kasich, and another elector who had remained anonymous gave his over to 1988 Libertarian candidate for President, and retired Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
While it numerically did nothing to hurt Trump's chances, it was a bold statement by the elector, and somewhat of a bittersweet moment for libertarians. Paul had finally gotten an electoral vote, and he had retired from politics in 2015.
But the identity of the elector who cast his vote for Ron Paul has been revealed, and it's a political science professor at South Texas College by the name of Bill Greene.
Greene was first identified by The Statesman, and has since had his social media accounts suspended, and his inbox overwhelmed with emails about his decisions, and requests for explanations. According to The Libertarian Republic, attempting to reach Greene via email gives you this auto response:
If you are contacting me regarding my vote in the Electoral College on December 19th, I will probably never see your email, due to spam filters and email “rules” I had to set in place thanks to over 80,000 emails I’ve already received.
Greene has since gone on vacation, but before he did that, he apparently gave permission to a friend named Sam Moore to write about his decision on his Facebook wall.
So why did he do it? I cannot put words into his mouth, but he didn't do it because he thought Ron Paul would win. We all know better than that. From what he's shared with me over the past few months however, he did it out of a profound sense of duty. That duty, as one of only 538 Electors, is to choose the best person for the POTUS/VPOTUS, period. That duty does not include the coronation of someone who may not be the best person for the job or the appointment of what they consider simply the lesser-of evil.
Moore went on to explain why Greene did what he did by using an analogy from the movie 300.
Have you have seen the movie '300'? In the movie, the all-powerful giant/god Xerxes was nicked from a spear thrown by a defiant Leonidas. Leonidas chose to fight for what he thought was right up until the last minute of his life, despite the odds. Did anything of direct consequence happen as a result of Leonidas's spear? Did Xerxes die, get an infection, or cry like a baby? Nope. Both him and all his troops were utterly slaughtered as a result.However, the people later heard about what Leonidas had done. That act sparked hope within others. Soon, the returned in greater numbers and eventually defeating the tyrant Xerxes for good, winning back their freedom.
My friend voted today, knowing that he may be in a world of political pain from those who don't understand such things, from those who don't understand the Constitution, from those who don't understand intent of the 12th Amendment, or from those who don't understand deviations from the mainstream narrative. To stand up and do this anyway makes my friend a hero.
All things considered, Greene is certainly brave for casting his vote as he did. With backlash of all kinds a certainty, Greene is likely to have a rough time on his hands, at least until the news cycle moves on and everyone forgets that it happened. If Moore is correct, however, then Greene's actions may have a wider effect in the long run.
Only time will tell.
You can read Sam Moore's post in its entirety by following the link below:
