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Updated 10/20/2010 05:55 AM

Third party candidate finds his name in other party's ballot row

By: Steve Ference

Only weeks before Election Day, a number of Albany County voters have uncovered a mistake on thousands of Albany County absentee ballots. Our Steve Ference found out what happened and what the candidate who could be impacted is saying about it.

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ALBANY, N.Y. -- "Friends I know were trying to find me on the ballot, the absentee ballot, and found that I was under the Green Party line," said Reform Line New York Senate Candidate Michael Carey.

If you've never heard of Carey, just know this: He's running for office and he's not a member of the Green Party.

Carey said, "I don't even know what the Green Party stands for. Have not been a member of the Green Party."

According to the Albany County Board of Elections, 5,000 absentee ballots have been sent out with his name listed in that row anyway with the word "Reform," the actual line he's running on.

"But it says 'reform' in the box though, and that's your party, right?" I asked him.

"Yeah, if you have your high-powered reading glasses or magnifying glass you might find reform in the box," Carey said.

To complicate matters, Carey says the Reform line's symbol, the scales of justice, weren't printed properly inside the box on the absentee ballots, tipping to the opposite side. A small mistake, perhaps, but they're details that may very well matter quite a bit in a three-way race.

Albany County Board of Elections Commissioner Matthew Clyne told us, "There was an issue with Michael Carey's emblem, but that was corrected. There was an error with respect to the justice scale, it should have been corrected."

But as far as Carey's being listed in what appears to be the Green Party row, Clyne said, "That was not an error. He was placed in the right spot and had his own emblem. So it was clear he was not a member of the Green Party."

Either way, Carey says he won't go to court over it, that he's just content it was fixed for the general election.

Carey said, "I did agree that if they were to adjust that and make it right on the general election ballot I would not challenge the absentee."

The row, now split for Albany County voters on Election Day, between the Reform line and the Green Party.