October 9, 2008

 

Election Systems and Software (ES&S), the primary provider of printed and electronic voting services for Real and Bexar counties in Texas, acknowledged on Wednesday, October 8th, that the company was responsible for errors in those counties' ballots for the upcoming election. On the Bexar County absentee ballots, Strohm's name was incorrectly listed as "James Arthur Stohm," a misspelling. In Real County, all ballots refer to him simply as "James Arthur," with no surname included.

 

"It's our fault," said Chris Moody, ES&S spokesperson, "and we deeply apologize."

 

Moody told Libertarian candidate for Texas' Congressional District 21, James Arthur Strohm, that he had contacted Real County Clerk Bella Rubio and informed her that ES&S would be reprinting all of the paper ballots for Real County, which still uses the method exclusively.

 

Moody also said that ES&S would be providing Bexar County with corrected electronic files for the county's computerized voting machines, and would deliver corrective labels for the few paper ballots remaining.  Bexar County uses electronic voting machines almost exclusively, and reserves the use of paper ballots for absentee and mail-in balloting. The majority of the paper ballots had already been mailed before the error was discovered and reported on October 7th.

 

Independently, Arthur DiBianca, Assistant Director of the Libertarian Party of Texas, confirmed on October 8th that Jacquelyn Callanen, Bexar County Elections Administrator, would correct the misspelling and post a new sample ballot with the corrections.

 

"I accept Mr. Moody's apology," James Arthur Strohm said, "but I remain dismayed that the errors occurred in the first place. After all, this information has been public record with the Texas Secretary of State since January, and it's always been accurate with them, as it has with the Federal Elections Commission, the House Ethics Committee, and even the IRS."

 

"And this isn't the first time I've run for Congress," Strohm added.

 

The Strohm for Congress Campaign confirmed on the morning of October 9th that the Bexar County Elections Department has received the corrected sample ballot.

 

"Now that this issue is successfully resolved," said Strohm, "we can get back to focusing on the issues that really matter to the voters in District 21, like effective government not big government, resolving the current financial crisis without wasting taxpayer dollars, border control, and, in general, restoring the constitutional rights of the citizens so that they, and not the government, can determine their own futures."

 

James Arthur Strohm is the Libertarian Candidate for U.S. Congress for Texas District 21 and can be contacted at 210-627-4826. He's a Libertarian. He actually answers his own phone.

U.S. House, District 21: James Arthur Strohm

"We'll confess — we're less than enthusiastic about Libertarian Strohm. In general, we think libertarian economic ideas are mostly abstract exercises in free-market fundamentalism, of little use in the current economic crisis. But Lamar Smith has been little more than a cog in the ruinous Republican machine of the past 7½ years (longer, if you recall the Newt Gingrich Congress), and we're embarrassed that the focus of his career has been beating up on immigrants. At least we agree with Libertarians on issues such as the Iraq war and drug legalization, and we're willing to check Strohm's name as a protest against a destructive regime." —Austin Chronicle, Oct. 17, 2008