'Barack Osama' ballot an 'innocent' error

TROY, N.Y., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Rensselaer County, N.Y., officials insist the misspelling of Barack Obama's name as "Barack Osama" on absentee presidential ballots was an innocent mistake.

No one was intentionally trying to sabotage the Democratic U.S. presidential nominee's chances in northern New York State by associating him with notorious al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, officials told the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union.

"We have three different staff members who proof these things and somehow the typo got by us," Republican Rensselaer County Commissioner Larry Bugbee told the newspaper. "We really apologize."

District Attorney Richard McNally said the incident likely wouldn't be investigated as a crime. Rensselaer County is the only county in New York that prints ballots in-house, a practice commissioners are now reviewing.

"We're glad officials are working to correct this error and we assume it won't happen again," Obama spokesman Blake Zeff told the Times Union.