Jose Menendez to hold press conference-Oct. 30th

Jose Menendez (photo)
State Rep. Dist. 124

State Representative Jose Menendez (D) San Antonio, will hold a press conference at the Northside Activity Center Early Voting site, located at Loop 410 and Culebra at 10AM Monday, October 30th.

Rep. Menendez is very concerned over a report from a constituent who revealed a disturbing case of not being able to verify her ballot choices before pressing the red "VOTE" button when she cast her ballot at 4:30 p.m. last Thursday.

Rose Mary Mena wanted to be sure the candidates she had checked on the ballot were in fact what the ballot review was recording but was unable to do so easily. Even with the assistance of an election official it took numerous attempts to verify her candidate slate.

"Electronic voting is a big improvement in many ways", stated Menendez. "But there is a major flaw and that is the lack of any sort of a paper trail to assure the individual voter their choices were properly recorded and also for election officials to address vote challenges when required".

Menendez's primary concern is that every voter should have complete confidence in that their vote is accurately recorded. He has spoken with Bexar County election administrator Jacquelyn Callanen who indicates she would support a paper trail system.

Menendez intends to make this a matter of legislative action in the upcoming session begining January 2007. "I want to very strongly urge every registered voter to go to the polls and exercise their right to vote" Menendez continued.

"I would also encourage every voter to carefully review the ballot choice they made before they take the last "push to vote" step in the process. Anyone who finds a discrepancy should do exactly as Rose Mena did and demand an election site official assist them".

For Additional Information Contact Don Jones at 473-1519.