N.Y. county sends out absentee ballots listing Barack 'Osama'

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

''This was a typo,'' Rensselaer County (N.Y.) Republican Commissioner Larry Bugbee tells the Albany Times Union in one of the biggest understatements of the campaign.

The TU writes that:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County

The bad ballots went out to about 300 voters, the newspaper says.



Read more: http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/10/ny-county-sends.html?loc=interstitialskip

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yeah, because the B and S keys are right next to each other and all

x(

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. and no one proofread them?

odd

[damntexdem]

54. Well, the explanation does involve b and s adjacent to each other, and in that order.

;-)

[GreenPartyVoter]

56. No doubt!

[Lionel Mandrake]

78. Sounds like BS to me.

What kind of keyboard has B next to S?

Certainly not the usual QWERTY keyboard!

[demnan]

2. Nobody makea a typo that bad

This was intentional.

[asjr]

9. And the proofreader was blind.

[motely36]

3. un freakin believable

[Diane R]

4. That was no typo. It's the crap that Rove has in place for this election.

[Karenina]

5. Drip, drip, drip...

[KamaAina]

6. B. S.

If you selieve that, I've got a sridge to show you...

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. you mean a sridge to bhow you

?

[damntexdem]

55. A sridge to sowhere?

Don't bother -- they're already trying to sell all of us that one.

[cal04]

7. thanks or the link RamboLiberal, just sent an email to the BOE

will now call them as well Here's the number and email
[e-mail]
Executive
[phone]
FAX [phone]

Adminstrative Office
[phone]
FAX [phone]

[SemperEadem]

11. someone needs to be fired for not being qualified to carry out their job

I mean spelling? Come on... the B and S keys aren't even on the same fucking row... nor are they anywhere close to one another in order... This was deliberate and the person who took it upon themselves to do this should be fired. The person whose job it was to check the work before it being sent to the printing machine should be fired.

The BOE of NY should do a tsumani press push to get out the word that those ballots, if mailed in, will be counted as invalid and that only the corrected ballots, which they are working overtime 24/7 to print up and mail out today, will be counted. That way, if someone is that dumb that they would vote for mclame on one of those defective ballots, then their vote will not count.

[struggle4progress]

73. Larry Bugbee should be fired

[RoccoR5955]

12. It probably was the printer...

The people who printed up the ballots were, more than likely, the ones at fault.
In NY, both the Democratic AND Republican party election commissioners have to okay ANYTHING in the county Board of Elections.
Most of the time this is a royal pain in the bung hole, but in this instance, I don't believe that it is them.
I can say this with some confidence, because I work in County government, though not in that county. I have a good idea of how things work in NY from my 19 years experience with the County I am employed by, and I know that one side would not let the other get away with anything like this.

[robinlynne]

13. jail. That was no typo!

[elocs]

14. The trouble with the tinfoil hats is that Obama is in no danger of losing NY state.

Had this happened here in Wisconsin or in Florida, it might have been a different story. It was a stupid and perhaps deliberate screwup, but it makes for a great story to get people worked up.

[sarcasmo]

75. This won't be the only place this happens, mark my word this was a trial run.

[bdamomma]

15. BS that was a typo.

what total BS.

[gaspee]

16. Typo my ass!

I guess they think we're all stupid.

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

17. Microsoft's spell checker has done this to me twice

Just FYI.

[Ms. Toad]

49. I had that all typed in the other thread

out before the threads were combined - the key arrangement does pretty much rule out an original typo, but a brain dead person accepting whatever the spell checking program offered MIGHT have "corrected" a misspelling. I've seen odder things suggested for names a spell check program doesn't recognize - you can imagine what most of them offer for the name "Fuchs," which I had to type quite often at one point in my life.

Osama would have likely been added to spellcheckers sometime after 2001; Obama several years later. If you have a spell checker created in 2003 (the year of a popular revision of Word), it is quite possible that Osama would be suggested as the correct spelling for Obama.

But, as several other posters pointed out, regardless of how the "typo" got there in the first place, this ballot should have been reviewed by LOTS of eyes before making it to the printer - and likely additional eyes should have reviewed the proofs after it came back from the printer.

[RoccoR5955]

51. Not so in Word...

I just checked this out in my copy of Word 2003, and it checks the words Osama and Obama correctly. Maybe you have to do the updates to your software more often.

[tanyev]

18. I can almost accept that someone could unintentionally verbally transpose the two names.

But a typo in a document? One that surely is proofread several times? Come on.

[AndyTiedye]

19. No Accident!

One of their operatives slipped this in. Perhaps they will succeed in getting a few would-be Obama voters' ballots thrown out, but it won't make any difference in NY state.

What it does do is make the news, and further implant the Obama/Osama thing in peoples' minds.

[djg21]

20. Barack 'Osama' on Rensselaer County ballots

Source: Albany (NY) Times Union

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County.

The misspelling, which elections officials on both sides of the aisle insist was simply a typo, is causing embarrassment for the county.
. . . .

Officials say the flawed ballots were sent to approximately 300 voters. On row 1A Barack Obama's name is spelled Barack Osama.



Read more: http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=728326

[soulcore]

21. yeah right, accident my ass. n/t

[amdezurik]

26. wink, wink, say no more...

[my2sense]

22. I won't be surprised if we find out there are more TYPO's out there

come election day.

:crazy:

[ixion]

23. NOT a type-o... done on purpose

the 'b' and the 's' key don't use anywhere near the same finger on a QWERTY keyboard, and you know someone wasn't using the hunt and peck method.

[Stuart G]

37. Of course these assholes...can't even get their lies right....

as ..I type this...I cannot get the b and s mixed up, but I can get the b and the g ...A real mistake would read.......

Ogama........

excuse me..............and I apologize to those who are too young...

but fuck the assholes....

[Newsjock]

24. This shit must stop NOW

Y'know, the markets are tanking, McCain is inciting violence, who knows what the hell is happening with Israel and Iran ... but THIS story makes me more pissed off than anything else I've seen today.

[central scrutinizer]

25. S is not close to B on my keyboard

I could buy Ovama or Onama

[ikojo]

27. What is wrong with the Democratic party..accepting that

this was merely a type-o? Man, there is even a hint of insulting Bush and the Republicans are ON IT, but the Dems just roll over and allow the candidate to be smeared like that.

You totally know that this will cost OBama votes because it will put in people's minds that he is allied with OSAMA bin Ladin. One thing you gotta hand it to the Republicans, they are good at their smears and setting the agenda.

[Newsjock]

28. Makes me wonder ... what type of restitution or resolution is appropriate or legal?

"Ooooh, we're SOOOOO sorry" just doesn't seem to cut it with this type of election mistake. What does the law allow for a candidate who is harmed in this way?

[ikojo]

72. Are the Republicans in power? Are they responsible

for this? I say reprint the absentee ballots and make the Republican party pay the cost.

[EFerrari]

29. How do you type an "s" instead of a "b"?

Yeah, right. It's a booboo. :sarcasm:

[Cooley Hurd]

38. The "Boss Tweed" of Rensselaer County is Joe Bruno...

...the SAME Joe Bruno who hired Roger Stone to harass Eliot Spitzer's elderly father last year:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/nyregion/23stone.html

This was NO accident!:grr:

[EFerrari]

41. I wonder how many venues will make the same "mistake".

We're about to get another reality check on how fucked we really are in this country. :grr:

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. Surely you mean 'Joe Sruno'?

Man, he gets that all the time ...

[Cooley Hurd]

46. Okay... maybe he needs a new keyboard?

:D

[sohndrsmith]

63. just what I was thinking - even if they are 2-finger typists... n/t

[EFerrari]

67. Welcome to DU, sohndrsmith.

I don't believe them.

[sohndrsmith]

71. thanks! Neither do I. Just * try * to type "Obama" with an

"s" in place of the "b" using the same finger (for touch typing, this would be the index finger). It can't be done without deliberate effort.

Even if the excuse is that someone just typed "Osama" by mistake and was missed by all the proof readers, how many people type "Osama" so often that doing so is automatic? But it's so lame that it just hurts those who hope it hurts Obama. It doesn't. This won't go anywhere, though. The only thing that might result from this is that it will be the final straw for a few annoyed undecideds, turning them into iron clad Obama voters.

And thanks again for the welcome! This is a great site.

[liberal N proud]

30. Those bastards should be prosecuted for voter fraud

[EFerrari]

40. Election fraud. No voter committed fraud here.

:)

[ReadTomPaine]

31. First order of business - who precisely is responsible. Name, job, location and contact info...

From there, further considerations can be undertaken.

[redirish28]

32. and as the one voter in the article said:" If I cross out the misspelling and spell it right

my ballot would not count".


Wonder how many other counties will make that slip....

[wvbygod]

33. What was it when Ted Kennedy did it?

Or is everything a conspiracy?

[Cooley Hurd]

35. Like I said in my post...

It passed by SEVERAL EYES before ending up at the printers.

Senator Kennedy has a brain tumor.

Use your head...:eyes:

[KingFlorez]

45. Did you make a wrong turn somewhere?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

79. Is there ANY republican flap you won't try to whitewash? -nt

[Cooley Hurd]

34. The Capital Region is HEAVILY Repug...

I don't believe this is an accident FOR a MINUTE! It passed thru several hands before it reached the printers!

:grr::mad::grr:

[hughee99]

47. When did that happen?

It didn't seem that way when I lived there in the 90's (Troy). Rensselaer county voted narrowly for Kerry in '04 (50%-48%) and if I recall correctly went for Gore in '00. It's board of elections has 2 commissioners (one Dem, one Repuke) and I imagine they probably did (or SHOULD have) both had a look at the ballot before it went to the printers.

[HopeHoops]

36. "C" is two keys closer to "S" than "B", so I could sort of see McSame being a typo ;}

[Frisbee]

39. The only typo...

was that apparently they forgot to use his middle name. The assholes.

[Vinca]

42. I'd demand a new ballot and keep the original one for a future ebay sale. nt

[WiMu]

43. Out of the other 25 letters in the alphabet

it just happened to be an s. And it was an accident, right. No way this could have been on purpose, it is not like there isn't a one letter difference between Obama and Osama. Plus we all know that the S is the letter right next to B on the keyboard, so it is only natural that those two letters would end up in typos by accident. I know I am all the time typing s whenever I am meaning to type a b. I wish someone would come up with a keyboard that would keep me from doing that. And it is not like anyone else has made this mistake before, confusing Obama with Osama, or that we have had ballots that were difficult to understand, so no wonder no one double checked the ballot to make sure that everything was in order. We don't know how this could have happened, we never had problems with any of our other elections, You know what it is, it just that Obama is such a weird name, that they may have seen it on the ballot and thought that it was a misspelling and corrected it. Noway could anyone have a name as exotic like Obama, they must really meant to put Osama on the ballot, because we all now that the only person to dare challenge John McCain in this election would be someone that hates America, you know a "terrorist!" And we all know that Democrats would stop at nothing to see John "P.O.W.War Hero" McCain lose this election.

[RoccoR5955]

53. So would it be a typo if I typed

shit instead of milk?
They are only four letters different.

[jibikao]

57. Fire those 3 Proof-readers now!!

They say 3 Democrats proof-read the ballot before it went out?

If Obama wants to set a tone that "incompentency is not allowed", now is the time to call for their firing.

How stupid can you be to miss that "S"? I do not believe it's an honest mistake no matter what you say.

Fire those who proofread the ballot NOW! It's the only way to show to the people that we need COMPENTENT people working for Americans.

This is my first post. I got soooooooooooooooooooo angry when I read the article. I am surprised we are already seeing this kind of conspiracy before Nov 4th. Un-F-believable.

[Politicalboi]

48. Ooop's a typo

My ass. And hey what's with the vote yes on 8 ad banner doing here at DU?

[cal04]

50. AP: NY election mix-up: 'Osama' on the ballot

NY election mix-up: 'Osama' on the ballot
Who is running for president? In an upstate New York county, hundreds of voters have been sent absentee ballots in which they could vote for "Barack Osama."

The absentee ballots sent to voters in Rensselaer County identified the two presidential candidates as "Barack Osama" and "John McCain." In the United States, the best-known person named Osama is Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida terrorist group.

Commissioners for the Rensselaer County Board of Elections say they regret the error but do not acknowledge in a statement exactly what the error is.

The botched ballots were first reported by the Times-Union of Albany.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081010/ap_on_el_pr/osama_ballot

[frickaline]

52. total sullbhit.

[olddad56]

58. doesn't it just make you proud to be an American.

[underpants]

59. Barack 'Osama' on Rensselaer County ballots (NY)

Source: Albany Times Union

Last updated: 4:05 p.m., Friday, October 10, 2008

TROY — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County.


The misspelling, which elections officials on both sides of the aisle insist was simply a typo, is causing embarrassment for the county.

Officials say the flawed ballots were sent to approximately 300 voters. On row 1A Barack Obama's name is spelled Barack Osama.

McDonough said the absentee ballots went out to voters in Brunswick, Nassau, Sand Lake, Schaghticoke and Schodack with the error.

One Sand Lake resident who caught the misspelling, and who asked to remain anonymous, was skeptical.

''It's a little suspicious and at least grossly incompetent,'' the voter said. "If I crossed out the name and wrote in the right spelling my ballot would be invalid."



Read more: http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=728326

---

Obama's Name Misspelled On 2,000 Ballots

ORLANDO, Fla. -- As Florida's primary approaches, there are already reported problems concerning ballots in Central Florida

Some 2,000 absentee ballots in Volusia County have been mailed with Barack Obama's first name misspelled.

On the ballot, the candidate's name is spelled B-A-R-A-K, Local 6 News reported Sunday.

http://www.local6.com/politics/15040675/detail.html

[Lerkfish]

60. the second one seems like a real typo to me, the first one, not so much.

[Cronus Protagonist]

61. I've made both of these typos myself

Perhaps that's just what they are. It's not like they wouldn't be noticed, so I doubt it was deliberate.

[jibikao]

62. Why don't they mis-spell McBush's name?

How convenient that they only misspell Obama's name?

Are American government workers that incompentent? I mean for real.

[Rocknrule]

64. What if we "accidentally" sent out ballots with "John McVeigh"?

[superconnected]

65. Where can I write to complain about obvious rasism and hatred coming from that

countys election office.

[redwitch]

66. sour grapes.

Rte 40 runs through Renssaeler County. I drive it on my way home all the time. The Dem lawn signs are quite prolific, I always feel happy driving through. So sorry repukes, have your pathetic joke. NY state is Democratic and there is nothing you can do about that.

[Endangered Specie]

68. I bet if someone spelled it "Sarah Failin", heads would roll.

Course, that was the family friendly version of what I was going to post.

[Doctor_J]

69. That way even if they want to vote for Obama, it won't count since the

ballot doesn't match the candidate's name.

Very clever.

[1Hippiechick]

70. It would be interesting to see the demographics on those 300 ballots - particular neighborhood? n/t

[sarcasmo]

74. If you correct the spelling the ballot becomes void. Get the word out, do not correct the spelling.

I think this was a trial run and your ballot will also have this spelling. If you correct the spelling your Ballot DOES NOT COUNT. Get out the word.

[jmowreader]

76. You'll hear this again...

One of the biggest ballot printers in America is in Fayetteville, NC. They print ballots for jurisdictions in at least 39 states...and the man who strips all of these ballots is a very good Democrat--who's been on the phone more times than he can count this year asking "permission" to change "Barack Osama" to "Barack Obama" on the ballots they ordered. There is no way in hell these are accidents.

[wordpix]

77. the repukes better watch out - tar and feathers are coming their way with this BS

whoops, McShame is a typo on the ballot my buds and I just sent out.