Because They Cheat Vol. 7

This may not count as cheating, but it's certainly a screw-up of the first order and all brought to you by the Democrats who run New York:

A vote for Republican Carl Paladino could actually be a vote for Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins - if you follow the directions printed on the November ballot.

In what appears to be yet another "royal screwup," the city Board of Elections printed a sample ballot that instructs voters to fill the "oval above" a candidate's name.

The correct oval is actually below each candidate's name.

"This is a problem that should have been caught ahead of time," said Larry Norden at the Brennan Center for Justice, which sussed out the snafu. "It may be too late to fix the ballot before the Nov. 2 elections."

Without acknowledging the goof, the Board of Elections quickly issued a statement saying instructions specifying that voters "need to fill in the oval below the candidate name they wish to vote for" would be placed in the privacy booths on election day.

Also, palm cards with instructions that include a photo of a correctly marked oval will be distributed at polling sites, Board spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez-Rivera noted.

Neal Rosenstein, voting coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the error won't have a large impact on voters because most don't even read the instructions.

"Still, in a very close election that comes down to a handful of votes, that could affect the outcome," Rosenstein said.

The infamous "butterfly ballot", created by a Florida Democrat, may have actually cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000 when some Dems accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan instead of Gore thanks to confusing ballot instructions.

There's no excuse on the part of election officials for getting this wrong...unless they did it intentionally.  Either way they should all be fired.  They've had months to prepare for this.