UPDATE: Ballot blunder puts Barack 'Osama' on Rensselaer county ballots

UPDATED 8:43 p.m.

Talk about a mix-up -- in Rensselaer County hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters have Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name spelled "Osama".

The absentee ballots were mailed out to about three hundred people in Nassau, Poestenkill, Brunswick, Schaghticoke, Sand Lake and part of Schodack.

Election officials -- both Democrats and Republicans -- say the misspelling was simply a typo.

But the gaffe could fuel arguments by campaign observers that the Illinois senator is being cast by Republican supporters as just too different -- and even un-American.

The misspelling of Obama's name subtly links the Democratic candidate with terrorist Osama bin Laden -- a tactic, some argue, that adds shades of sinistry to his campaign.

Another reason many say it's unlikely the misspelling was just an honest mistake: the letters S and B are nowehere near each other on the keyboard.

And even if it was, former Board of Elections commissioner Thomas Wade says he had implemented a system that includes six people to look over those ballots before they go to print to prevent mistakes like this.

The BOE's current Democratic Commissioner Edward McDonough told CBS 6 Tuesday evening his office will begin mailing out new ballots Tuesday -- 302 of them. He said if any of the "Osama" ballots return with marks next to Obama's misspelled name, they will  count as a vote for Obama. He said if voters send in both ballots, the board of elections will destroy one of them.

McDonough said the worker who typed the "s" instead of the "b" submitted her resignation today but he refused to let her go. Although McDonough and GOP Election Commissioner Larry Bugbee put out a joint statement saying the matter involves a "typographical" error, McDonough told CBS 6 News it is possible it was not a typo but rather a mental error, where the typist mistakenly wrote one name where it should have been another.

McDonough said said by printing its own ballots, his office saves taxpayers $150,000. Still, he said this episode has the BOE considering the use of an outside printer. He said the advent of a new balloting system may make that a necessity anyway.

In Renssealer County there are thirteen configurations for absentee ballots.  According to McDonough, the same person typed up all thirteen configurations and made the error only on one of them - one that was sent to voters in one particular district.  McDonough says on that particular ballot, the typist got "Obama" wrong on the Democratic Party line but got it right on the Working Families Party line.

According to the latest enrollment statistics posted on the state Board of Elections website, there are 25,398 active Democrats and 26,101 active Republicans in Rensselaer County.

Did you get one of these ballots? We would love to hear from you -- send us an email at news@wrgb.com or give us a call: 518-381-4988