Just An Honest Mistake? [with update]

As many Hudseen readers likely know, I am hoping to be voted in as a Hudson Common Council member representing the third ward on November 7th.  A few months ago, I submitted the required number of signatures on time to the Columbia County Board of Elections and was told that everything appeared to be in order to be on the ballot.  A few days ago, I decided to see what the ballot for the third ward will look like, to see my name for the first time ever on an election ballot, and to see who I am running against.  Here is the third ward SAMPLE BALLOT offered to the public, taken from the County Board of Elections website:

If you are having as much difficulty as I initially had in finding my name on the sample ballot, there's good reason for it.  That's because it is practically impossible to find my name, let alone read it, since the person who stamped the sample ballot (and it is done by hand!) applied a portion of the stamp on the right side of the page so that it completely covers my name.  Notice that my name is the only name obscured on the third ward sample ballot.  Okay, I thought when I first saw this, that's really disappointing and more than a bit unsettling, but surely other names on other ballots will have the same issue.  My name can't possibly be the only one obscured!  Right?

Wrong!  I looked at all of the other 22 sample ballots for Columbia County (including for the other 4 wards in Hudson), and there was not one candidate running for any office whose name had been obscured by a stamp.  Not one!  Furthermore, it's obvious on at least 5 sample ballots that the person doing the stamping deliberately avoided stamping over candidate's names -- even names that are located in the same exact box as my box on the third ward ballot (located 4th from the bottom and 2nd from the right).  It appears that my name, and my name only, was deliberately obscured by the people at the County Board of Elections.  What other conclusion can one come to?  

Here are the sample ballots from Ancram, New Lebanon, Chatham, Germantown and Kinderhook showing how the stamper appears to have carefully avoided covering names by stamping at different angles and in different locations on the page.

Why was such care taken to not obscure names on these 5 sample ballots and all but one of the other 18 sample ballots?  Why was the same care not taken on Hudson's 3rd ward sample ballot, which features a new candidate not affiliated with a conventional party, who happens to be a critic of local government, and whose name just happens to be completely obscured and unreadable?  What's the message here?  Isn't this a tactic one would expect in a country that scoffs at free and fair elections?

Here is a sample ballot for Hudson's fourth ward.  Do you notice the names of any candidates that are obscured by the stamps, as my name was?  Do you see any "mistakes" made on this ballot?

Is it at all conceivable that the person doing the stamping failed to notice that they had obscured my name with their own stamp?  Did they not even look at the page after finishing with the stamp?  Is it possible that the stamper's supervisor failed to notice that the stamper's work had completely obscured a candidate's name?  Besides the stamper, did anyone at the Board of Elections review all of the sample ballots after the stamping and before posting them to the website to be sure that there were no problems and that ALL names were clearly legible?  Did anyone at the Board of Elections review the sample ballots after they were posted on their own website to see how they looked, to make sure there were no errors, and to be sure that all names were legible?  It's difficult to imagine a mistake like this would slip through the cracks, isn't it?  It's really difficult for me to believe that this was an unavoidable mistake at all. 

Welcome to politics in Hudson and Columbia County, Bill Huston!  

This was the second "mistake" which I experienced from the Board of Elections that has only increased my sense that someone, or some group, simply doesn't want me on the ballot or even to be involved with the Hudson Common Council.  The first "mistake" was possibly even further beyond belief than this one -- but, at least for now, I will spare you the details.  It just makes me want to be voted in all that much more!  

After years of attending and trying my best to participate in Common Council public meetings (if a bit loudly), I have come to this conclusion: Resistance to my efforts to speak and ask legitimate questions, to be heard, and to be respectfully responded to has convinced me that my efforts are just and worthwhile.  

To those of you who plan on filling out a third ward ballot in the upcoming election:  I sincerely hope I can count on your votes.  Regardless of the ugly "mistake" on our sample ballot, my name should be as easy to locate and read as all the other names on the actual ballot when you vote.  If it's not, then we've got an even larger problem than the one which I've illustrated here.  

I am running on the self-penned Fiscal Responsibility ticket, hoping to, among other equally important things, rein in City Hall's spendthrift ways and ask questions of our department heads that no one else seems to be comfortable asking of them.  Should it come as any surprise that I am made to feel unwelcome, as well as being made invisible to voters?  But by whom?

Update, 10/24/23:  The Board of Elections has put a new 3rd ward sample ballot on their website, using just two SAMPLE BALLOT stamps, neither of which obscures my name or anyone else's name.

On the 28th, I received a phone call from the tech person responsible for the Election Board's website, including the sample ballots posted there, though he did not do the actual stamping.  He let me know that the 3rd ward sample ballot had been redone, assuring me that the poor placement of the stamp was not intentional.