For the past few years, at least, officials in Atascosa County, south of San Antonio, have been sending out absentee ballot packages that include a page with a flag proudly displayed in a wavy motion.(from the Austin American-Statesman)
The only trouble is, it's the Chilean flag, not the Texas flag. And it took a Ph.D. candidate to point it out.
Troy Knudson , who is studying in Japan and registered to vote in Atascosa County, was the first to notice the mistake and alert officials.
"Apparently the insert has been used for some time without anyone (voters and staff) noticing," he wrote in an e-mail. "I guess it's funny in some way, but my initial reaction was more disbelief that no one had noticed."
Quite possibly, this is an honest mistake. Or, if you're not so charitable, you could disparage the person who designed these ballots for not being Texan enough to know the difference between the flag of the Lone Star State and that of a South American nation. Of course, if you did that, you should also disparage those who've been handling the ballots -- and using them to vote on -- for the same thing. And we don't want to go slinging a lot of blame, do we? Some people might get upset.
Janice Ruple , the elections administrator in Atascosa County, didn't see any humor in the mistake.Well, at least a bit more than three years, I think.
"I don't think it's funny," she said. "It's a serious thing."
Ruple blamed the woman who held the job before her for the flag mix-up. The previous elections chief couldn't be reached for comment.
Ruple has been on the job for three years. But she said she had no idea how long the flag of Chile had been there before she took office.
3 comments:
Yeah, I've got a picture of my eight-year-old in a Texas flag mask which she made. And she was born in Virginia and has only lived here in SA for four years. Just sayin'.
I wonder how many people recognized it was messed up and shook their heads and mocked it quietly to loved ones and then decided to see how long it would take the powers that be to catch it. 'Cause that's actually what I would have done.
I fairness (but certainly no excuse) I think it may be one of those things like the e-mail that I receive with all the words purposely misspelled. It shows that as long as the letters are there but not necessarily in the proper order, we can generally read and understand the message. In this case, people expecting to see the Texas flag see the colors and the star and never give it a further inspection - their mind has already accepted it as the flag.
Still, no excuses for the bureaucrats; shouldn't they be using a licensed official collection of Texas related graphics?
... it may be one of those things like the e-mail that I receive with all the words purposely misspelled. It shows that as long as the letters are there but not necessarily in the proper order, we can generally read and understand the message.
That's probably right. People fill in the gaps with what they expect to see, and that's a normal function of the human brain. But still, the officials should know better, and even if your predecessor designed the ballot, it shouldn't take you three years to have a major mistake like that pointed out to you.
It just makes it seem like you're not paying attention.
Post a Comment