Illinois Candidate's Name Misspelled As 'Rich Whitey' On Electronic-Voting Machines

[Joanne98]

There are typos and then there are complete and utter catastrophes.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled "Rich Whitey" on electronic-voting machines in 23 wards -- "about half in predominantly African-American areas." The error only occurs on screens voters would see when they are reviewing their choices (Whitney's name appears correctly on the initial screens), but officials say the error cannot be corrected before election day.

Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, told the Sun-Times he expects 90% of votes on election day to be cast on paper ballots -- minimizing the number of voters who would see the misspelling.

"I don't want to be identified as 'Whitey.' If this is happening in primarily African-American wards, that's an even bigger concern," Whitney told the Sun-Times. The paper says he's considering legal action. "I don't know if this is machine politics at play or why this happened."

The latest Rasmussen poll shows Whitney drawing just 2% of the vote.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/il-gov-candidates-name-mispelled-as-rich-whitey-on-electronic-voting-machines.php?ref=fpa

[polichick]

1. Oh my lord! :/

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Wow, a thing like this could cut him down to

maybe 1.5% of the vote. Damn, the Daley machine strikes again to eliminate a threat from the left.

[Radical Activist]

12. He got 10% 4 years ago.

He could easily cost Democrats the election.

[kestrel91316]

3. Oh, dear. I have no words. Besides, I'm too busy snickering to speak.

If he had a shot at winning, I guess it wouldn't be such a laughing matter to me.

[mkultra]

4. lol. is it true??

[flamingdem]

5. That's too much! They have to fix it nt

[mikekohr]

6. I'm so proud to be from Illinois

mike kohr
Bureau County Democrats
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com

[nemo137]

7. To be fair, that's what I thought his name was the last time he ran.

I saw a yard sign and did a double take.

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

8. Shouldn't "Rich Whitey" be the Republican candidate?

or at least the DLC candidate?

Doesn't sound like the name of a Green. :rofl:

[frazzled]

9. Yeah, not good: but I can't help laughing my head off

I hope it's spelled that way in my ward, just to make my voting more amusing. Though I don't use the screen voting (almost no one I see voting in my precinct does), but rather the electronically scanned ballots. There is a choice in most precincts, so I doubt this will have any effect on the outcome of the race.

Who wants a rich whitey to run the state?

[KingFlorez]

10. I shouldn't laugh at that, but it's very funny

[Canuckistanian]

11. If I had a dollar for every 'Rich Whitey' in politics

I'd be one myself.

[Honeycombe8]

13. That's disastrous and unforgiveable. Who types up those things? It'll cost him

in votes big time.

He needs to sue, if they don't correct the ballots and get them distributed.