Williamson County To Re-Issue 8,000 Ballots Due To Error

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS — County officials plan to reissue some 8,000 ballots by mail that were distributed missing a candidate's name in a statewide election, election officials said Wednesday.

The error centers on the presiding judge, Court of Criminal Appeals race, officials said. The ballots should have listed three candidates — a Republican Democrat and Libertarian. Due to what elections officials categorized as an error, the Libertarian candidate, William Bryan Strange III, was not listed on the ballots.

“We regret the mistake we made, and we are working diligently to rectify this situation," Chris Davis, Williamson County's elections administrator, wrote in a press advisory. "We are expediting production of the corrected ballots-by-mail and expect to mail them next week. We ask anyone who received a Williamson County ballot-by-mail to wait and use the corrected ballot they will be receiving."

Part of the corrective process includes revising online sample ballots and re-programing the electronic voting machines used for in-person voting beginning Oct. 22, Davis explained.

“We are working to ensure that every voter has the correct ballot in front of them when they vote,” Davis said. “I informed the Libertarian Party county chair of our mistake and outlined the corrective measures we are taking.”

Davis said the Elections Office will be thoroughly vetting their internal processes and specifically improving ballot proofing procedures with more redundancy to avoid any future ballot missteps.

Patch reached out to the Libertarian Party of Texas for comment, but a message left at its headquarters was not immediately returned.

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