Voters in some predominantly African-American Chicago neighborhoods will be faced with the prospect of electing a candidate listed as “Rich Whitey” thanks to a mistake made on electronic voting machines in nearly two dozen voting wards, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday.
The glitch means Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney’s name will be misspelled on voting machines in 23 wards, the report said.
Although the candidate’s name is spelled correctly on the initial ballot, when voters review their selections, the mistake will appear, Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections told the paper.
Acknowledging a “difficult situation,” Allen assured voters would see the correct name “where it counts.”
“We’ll make the best of it. But the important thing is the name is spelled correctly where it counts, and that’s where people are making the selection,” the paper quoted Allen as saying. He said there is not enough time before the election to reprogram the voting machines.
For his part, Whitney expressed concerns about whether or not the mistake was intentional.
“I don’t want to be identified as ‘Whitey,’” the candidate told the Sun-Times. “If this is happening in primarily African-American wards, that’s an even bigger concern.”