FORT WORTH, Texas — For the first time in a decade, Fort Worth will have a new mayor.
With 10 candidates running to replace Betsy Price and so many names on the ballot, officials say, it's led to a second page of names in the system.
Officials want to make sure voters know the list extends to a second page, which should be accessible by clicking a yellow button.
The Tarrant County administrator said the names are chosen for the second page using a lottery drawing done by the city. In this election, two mayoral candidates' names are on a second page, front runners Deborah Peoples and Mylene George.
“It’s really unfortunate in this historic race for the Mayor of Fort Worth,” said Neil Goodman, with Deborah Peoples' campaign.
Heider Garcia, the administrator for the county, says the system is set up to be user friendly.
But the screen size is limited, according to Garcia, and it’s unusual to have 10 candidates on a ballot.
“What wasn’t random is the intentional design to make it so that names are left off the initial screen that voters were shown on the ballot. Deborah People’s voters have to do twice the amount of work to vote for her, which we think is a problem. I think if two columns are adjusted in font sizes could fix this problem. A simple formatting change will fix the problem,” Goodman said.
Garcia said the ballot system is regulated and administrators can’t tamper with the settings. By law, there is no way to reduce the font size to fit all of the names on one ballot.
“These simple ballot design issues, one person on the next page, that can really make a difference, we’ve seen how close a lot of these elections are,” Goodman said.
The key for voters, officials said, is to make sure to read all the candidates before casting your vote. Early voting runs through April 27 and election day is May 1.
