Wrong Ballot Loaded In Voting Machine

I experienced a surreal event while trying to vote. I thought I would beat the long lines at the League City Annex to early vote by going to the Kemah Community Center. It was not crowded at all and I would have been in and out in three minutes had I not run into a snag.

As I was scrolling through my ballot I noticed that Craig Eilland was listed as a candidate that I could vote for on this ballot. I thought to myself that redistricting was certainly gerrymandered but this was ridiculous. I quickly recalled in my head the precinct map for precinct 452 and realized that something was terribly wrong. Then I realized that all my League City elections and Charter Amendments were not loaded in my voting machine either.

I left my machine to tell a voting worker that I had the wrong ballot. She told me that was impossible. I assured her it was possible. I again explained that instead of listing the candidates in the JP7 race, the candidates listed were for JP5. I also told her that all my League City Ballot was missing. She took my license and looked up my registration and told me again that I had the correct ballot for my address and then asked me if I moved from this address. I told her that has been my address for seven years.

After many people gathering around to see what the issue was, the poll workers cancelled my machine ballot, called Galveston and received the proper code for my ballot. Then they forced the machine to give me the correct ballot.

I believe that 90% of the voters would have voted and walked away not knowing the difference and would have missed one of the most important local elections in League City in years.

Has anyone else received the wrong ballot in the past? I suggest that everyone know their precinct number, download your precinct ballot from www.galvestoncountyvotes.org and familiarize yourself with the correct ballot before voting.