WNYC
by John Keefe
October 21, 2010

Instructions on a sample ballot for the general election tell voters to fill the "oval above" a candidate's name -- when the correct oval is actually below each candidate's name.

In one case, voters trying to vote for Carl Paladino for Governor on the Taxpayers Party line would actually cast a vote for Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, if they followed the instructions and were using the sample ballot.

The Brennan Center for Justice, which has challenged some of the city's voting procedures, found the error after obtaining a sample ballot from the city Board of Elections. The center wrote the board a letter requesting the ballot be fixed before the election. WNYC has not yet reached officials at the Board of Elections for comment.

The incorrect instructions read:

"To vote for a candidate whose name is printed on this ballot, fill in the oval above or next to the name of the candidate."

In the letter to the state attorney general's office and the city law department, the center's attorneys said, "We understand that substantially the same instruction will be provided to voters in a notice in every privacy booth."

On the sample ballot, each candidate and his or her oval are bounded by a box, and in most cases the proper oval is clearly below the candidate's name.

But ballot designers who looked at a similar sample ballot at WNYC's request before the statewide primary expressed concern that sometimes the nearest oval is actually just above the candidate's name -- potentially causing confusion even without the incorrect instructions.