'First time ever' Cameron County elections office shreds blank ballots after misprint

CAMERON COUNTY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — In Cameron County, the elections department had a day full of shredding after realizing a printing mishap. This is the first time something like this happens in the county.

According to Elections Administrator Remi Garza the initial Election Day ballots received for the June 15 Joint Runoff Election were misprinted with his red initials on the back where the presiding judges are supposed to sign.

During the reprinting process, the printers, reprinted the Election Day ballots without the initials but in a way that duplicated serial numbers of the original Election Day set.

"Therefore, we have to destroy the misprinted ballots in our possession, as we now have the replacement correctly printed Election Day ballots," Garza said.

He said the aim is to destroy these ballots before distributing supplies to the Presiding Judges on Thursday. As of Wednesday afternoon 19,000 ballots had been destroyed at the County Annex Building in San Benito.

This is the first time this ever happens in Cameron County.