County officials don't know what the flag of their own state looks like
112 replies, posted
[release][img]http://www.statesman.com/multimedia/dynamic/00570/Ballot-Insert_570228c.jpg[/img]
For the past few years, at least, officials in Atascosa County, south of San Antonio, have been sending out absentee ballot packages that include a page with a flag proudly displayed in a wavy motion.
The only trouble is, it's the Chilean flag, not the Texas flag. And it took a Ph.D. candidate to point it out.
Troy Knudson , who is studying in Japan and registered to vote in Atascosa County, was the first to notice the mistake and alert officials.
"Apparently the insert has been used for some time without anyone (voters and staff) noticing," he wrote in an e-mail. "I guess it's funny in some way, but my initial reaction was more disbelief that no one had noticed."
He said election officials congratulated him "for preventing future Atascosa voters from seeing the flag mistake."
To be fair to the good folks in the 43,000-person county, the flags of Texas and Chile do look a lot alike.
They both have a big white stripe on top and a big red one on the bottom. They each have a single star in the middle of a blue field. The only difference is that the blue on the Chilean flag is only in the top left corner. And in the Texas flag, the blue runs all the way down the left side.
Janice Ruple , the elections administrator in Atascosa County, didn't see any humor in the mistake.
"I don't think it's funny," she said. "It's a serious thing."
Ruple blamed the woman who held the job before her for the flag mix-up. The previous elections chief couldn't be reached for comment.
Ruple has been on the job for three years. But she said she had no idea how long the flag of Chile had been there before she took office.
"We just never caught it," Ruple said.
Ruple said her predecessor took other liberties with the ballots.
"She used to put in extra stuff," Ruple said.
A copy of an insert that came with Knutson's absentee ballot showed a sample ballot with mock candidates for county commissioner: "Black Jack Pershing," "Jean LaFitte" and "Davey Crockett."
According to historians in Texas and Tennessee, there's no "e" in Davy.
The ballots going out of the office now don't have anything that is unnecessary, Ruple said.[/release]
[b]SOURCE:[/b] [i][url=http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/county-accidentally-displays-flag-of-chile-on-ballot-966779.html]The Statesman[/url][/i]
fyi the texas flag looks like this
[img]http://images.chron.com/blogs/txpotomac/Texas%20flag.jpg[/img]
it's an easy mistake and understandable if you didn't live in that state, but if you seriously don't know what your own state's flag is you should repeat elementary school
Americans.
[editline]09:29PM[/editline]
*Americans from Texas
haahahahahah
how embarassing.
Texas state officials are... depressingly stupid. Fortunately a growing number of people are losing faith in the Republican government.
This is not a very big deal.
[quote]Ruple blamed the woman who held the job before her for the flag mix-up. The previous elections chief couldn't be reached for comment.
Ruple has been on the job for three years. But she said she had no idea how long the flag of Chile had been there before she took office.[/quote]
Ah yes, the Blame Bush syndrome...
looks right to me
This is what happens when you have a stupidly unoriginal flag design. This would never happen in Maryland with our incredibly sexy flag.
[img]http://www.50states.com/flag/image/nunst032.gif[/img]
To be fair it does look [I]a lot[/I] alike. Took me a second to realize what was off.
[QUOTE=Chilean;25365045]looks right to me[/QUOTE]
I see what you did there.
This is embarrassing. I live in Texas and I knew the difference as soon as I saw this.
[QUOTE=StupidUsername67;25365349]This is what happens when you have a stupidly unoriginal flag design. This would never happen in Maryland with our incredibly sexy flag.
[/QUOTE]
My state takes the cake for unoriginal, simple, stupid flag design.
[img]http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/alabama/images/state-flag-alabama.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=nikomo;25387128]Can't mistake this
[img_thumb]http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5361/suomenlippu.jpg[/img_thumb]
Fuck yeah.[/QUOTE]
To be honest I sometimes mistake that for the Greek flag.
And since this has turned into a post your flag thread...
[img]http://www.midcoast.com/~martucci/neva/images/NHNew.gif[/img]
(the motto isn't actually on the flag)
It took me a few seconds to figure out what was wrong, and I live in Texas. :sigh:
Born in:
[img]http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/new-jersey/images/state-flag-new-jersey.jpg[/img]
Now I live in:
[img]http://www.50states.com/flag/image/nunst012.gif[/img]
I like the NJ flag better :(
not much of a big deal. half the time i can't even remember the difference between NZ flag and our most hated enemies flag
I noticed something was up and I live in canada.
[editline]13th October 2010[/editline]
might just be because chile is in the news a lot lately
[QUOTE=StupidUsername67;25365349]This is what happens when you have a stupidly unoriginal flag design. This would never happen in Maryland with our incredibly sexy flag.
[img_thumb]http://www.50states.com/flag/image/nunst032.gif[/img_thumb][/QUOTE]
Holy fuck. Best state flag, ever.
Here's our province's lame flag:
[img]http://www.amican.com/images/OntarioFlag.png[/img]
Sucks, should be something original but we're just like "Egh make it red for Canada and toss a Union Jack in there somewhere."
Well isn't that just ridiculous.
[QUOTE=Furioso;25395459]Holy fuck. Best state flag, ever.[/QUOTE]
you bet your sweet cheeks it is
The person designing it probably just thought it was shitty clip-art and was just an artistic representation or some shit.
Other people probably noticed it was off, but were like "It's just the fucking clip-art, who gives a shit?"
North Rhine-Westphalia Flag
[img_thumb]http://www.nationalflaggen.de/pix/flaggen/deutschland/flagge_nordrhein_westfalen_001.gif[/img_thumb]
Its in germany, for those who dont know
but it kinda looks like mexico/italy
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