Anne Barth Press Release

ALL ELECTION BALLOTS PRINTED
WITH ANNE BARTH'S NAME MISSPELLED

West Virginia Secretary of State's Office Informs Candidate "we goofed" -
- Offers To Reprint Ballots Correctly For $125,000 -

CHARLESTON, W.VA.,- Anne Barth, Democratic candidate for West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District, won't be appearing on the ballot in May – but someone named Ann Barth will.

Actually, the two are the same, as far as the West Virginia Secretary of State's office is concerned. The office called Anne Barth - the actual candidate - on Thursday to inform her that, even though she had filled out all her filing papers correctly, her name would not appear correctly on the thousands of paper ballots, absentee ballots, and the optical scan ballots already printed for the May primary election because, well, "they goofed."

Taking full responsibility for the error made against Anne Barth, a first-time candidate who has been working diligently to establish name recognition in her district, the Secretary of State's office cited state code 3-1-21 F as a way to remedy the situation. The code would allow the Secretary of State to order all the ballots to be reprinted correctly – in this case at a cost to West Virginia taxpayers of between $100,000 and upwards of $125,000, according to the Secretary of State's office.

"I hold no ill will at all toward the Secretary of State's Office," Anne Barth said, "but I do have a concern about government mistakes that cost taxpayers money. We all pay a price for those mistakes.

"Secretary of State Betty Ireland's office called to tell me that all the ballots have been printed with my name misspelled. They acknowledged that fault was entirely theirs – and that I had filled out all my paperwork properly.

"They also informed me that, under state code, it would be the Secretary of State's responsibility to have all the ballots reprinted with my name spelled correctly – at a cost they estimated to be between $100,000 and $125,000 to the taxpayers of West Virginia.

"One of the reasons I am running for Congress is that I believe in fiscal responsibility. I believe taxpayers too often end up paying for the mistakes of government. We need to restore some fiscal sanity to Washington. That is a big reason why I am running.

"I would never cause the taxpayers of West Virginia to have to pay $125,000 to clean up the mistake made by the Secretary of State's Office. That is not who I am, and not the kind of Congresswoman I intend to be. I called the Secretary of State's office this morning and asked them not to reprint the ballots. I believe in putting your beliefs into action.

"I'll just have to continue working hard to build the name recognition a successful candidate needs, knowing that my name will be misspelled when voters all across my district go into the booths on Election Day. My former boss' name is very well known. Mine is not. It's a challenge.

"The spelling of my name on the ballot may not seem like such a big deal to some people, but I take everything about this campaign very seriously, just as I take the responsibilities of public service very seriously."