ADVERTISEMENT

DC Purposely Screws Up Voting Guide

“They’re paying attention. It’s working!”

October 16, 2014

The DC election board has issued this year's voting guide. 305,164 copies of the little booklet have been sent out ahead of this year's elections. However, there is a bit of a problem with this year's guide.

The Washington Post reports that the upside down flag is actually not a typo. The board reportedly made the mistake on purpose.

Rather, Tolliver said, it was an effort to engage voters months after primary elections that saw record-low turnout. The idea, she said, was to put the voter guide on the board’s Web site with the inverted flag, prompt viewers to find the mistake, and "see how many clicks we can get."

They believe the upside down flag is engaging.

"It’s something we wanted to do to kind of engage people," said Tolliver, who said the gimmick was "kind of a collective thing" but was ultimately approved by Tatum. "The turnout was just so low in April."

The purposeful mistake has drawn outrage on Twitter. The board isn't off put by that though.

"People are responding, aren’t they?" she added. "They’re paying attention. It’s working!"