San Jose Sample Ballot Pamphlets Missing Argument Against Measure B

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIF. --The County of Santa Clara Registrar of Voters announced today that the Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlets currently being mailed to over 412,000 voters in the City of San Jose are missing the text of the argument opposed to Measure B. The Registrar of Voters is acting swiftly to correct the issue, including mailing an errata letter to all registered voters in the city.

“It is unfortunate when an error like this happens. We have stringent quality control processes in place, but in this instance they were not sufficient to catch this mistake,” said Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey. “We are doing everything we can to make sure that voters are made aware of the issue and receive the missing information.”

The Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet is a booklet that is mailed to every registered voter before each election. In addition to voting instructions, it contains information about the candidates and measures appearing on the ballot, including candidates’ statements of qualifications and arguments for and against ballot measures.

The Registrar of Voters is currently in the process of mailing the pamphlets for the June 3, 2014 Primary Election. Some voters have already received their pamphlets in the mail, while others should look for them to arrive during the coming week. The omission of the argument against Measure B was discovered too late in the process for pamphlets to be re-printed. Therefore, voters will receive a copy of the missing argument as a separate letter.

This issue affects the sample ballot pamphlets only and does not affect any official ballots, which voters will use to mark their choices when voting by mail or at the polls. The official ballots do not include arguments for or against measures.

The argument against Measure B was filed at the San Jose City Clerk’s office correctly and on-time. The inadvertent omission of the argument from the sample ballot pamphlet was the result of a clerical error on the part of the Registrar of Voters’ Office and was not due to any fault of the argument’s authors.

In addition to mailing the missing argument to voters, the Registrar’s Office is taking other steps to notify voters about this issue. Voters who have provided an e-mail address on their registration forms will be sent an additional e-mail notice. Sample ballot pamphlets that are available at polling places and early voting locations will include a loose sheet of paper with the argument. It will also be added to the online voter information pamphlets at www.vote.santaclaracounty.gov and on the SCCVOTE mobile app.

For more information, contact the Registrar of Voters’ Office at 1-408-299-VOTE (8683) or toll-free at 1-866-430-VOTE (8683), or visit www.vote.santaclaracounty.gov.

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