Donny Green, County Executive Director of the DeKalb/Cannon County Farm Service Agency (FSA), says that a printing/mailing contractor, hired to print and mail ballots nationwide for the Farm Service Agency, erroneously formatted the 2013 Farm Service Agency County Committee Election Ballots that were mailed out last week. As a result, the following notice was issued by the Farm Service Agency National Office:
“Recently you should have received a ballot for FSA County Committee election. As you may have noticed, your ballot was incorrectly printed with your name and address shown on the back of the actual ballot. This was a misprint, and these ballots cannot be used. Please destroy or recycle the ballot dated 07-03-13. If you have already voted, your ballot will be destroyed unopened. You will be receiving a new one by mid-December with a corrected election date. Please watch your mail for the new ballot and vote for the COC candidate of your choice. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Green wants all of DeKalb and Cannon counties eligible voters to be aware of this printing mistake and that they should not purchase postage or travel to the county office to return these invalid ballots that were erroneously printed by the private contractor. “We want our eligible voters to have confidence in our County Committee Election process that has been the model of integrity allowing local farmers and ranchers to have a voice in local FSA program delivery and office administration. FSA’s County Committee is uniquely designed to allow farmers and ranchers to elect their peers who make decisions at the grassroots level,” says Green.
The DeKalb and Cannon County FSA Committees want to encourage voters in the Local Administrative Areas (LAA’s) up for election this year to be watching for the corrected ballots that will be mailed out by mid-December. It is vitally important that voters take the time to vote when these corrected ballots are received. As the Farm Service Agency gets more information on this matter and the corrective actions, additional news releases will be publicized.