Elections and misspellings

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The last name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled as “Whitey” on electronic-voting machines in nearly two dozen wards — about half in predominantly African-American areas — and election officials said Wednesday the problem cannot be corrected by Election Day.

Given the presence on the ballot of Green Party Senate candidate LeAlan Jones (whose overall numbers are low but who has significant support among African-American voters), and given the very close race for Senate between Alexi Giannoulias (D) and Mark Kirk (R), one must wonder whether this misspelling is accidentally-on-purpose, a way to steer African-American voters toward the Democratic slate.

Oh, and given that it’s Illinois.

October 16, 2010: The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the misspelling will be corrected. Says Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal,

“No one at the Chicago Board of Elections or a vendor would ever do anything to in any way negatively effect the integrity of the election, the integrity of this office or in any way influence any one candidate’s success.”