Oops: Upside-Down Flag Mars D.C. Voter Guide

By Hannah Hess

Posted October 16, 2014 at 11:03am

District of Columbia residents might be confused to see an upside-down D.C. flag on the cover of the official voter guide being shipped out in advance of the Nov. 4 elections.

The D.C. Board of Elections is playing off the image as the only error in an otherwise correct overview of where and when voters should cast ballots for mayor, city council seats and the District’s non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.

“Can you figure out what’s wrong?” joked a spokeswoman for the board, which serves more than 400,000 registered voters in the District. In a phone interview with CQ Roll Call on Thursday morning, the spokeswoman said the agency was working on posting a note on its website that would tell voters: “Hint: it’s not the content.”

All the information inside the guide is correct, according to the office. Mailing of the booklet began Wednesday.

Federal law states the U.S. flag should never be displayed with upside down, “except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property,” a fact some observers noted when photos of the voter guide began to appear on Twitter Wednesday evening.

Voters in Distress! RT @JTinDC: This upside down flag is why we can’t have nice elections. pic.twitter.com/bWiuXg8UNS

— Richard Rosendall (@RickRosendall) October 16, 2014

My board of elections printed the DC flag upside down. Is this a distress signal for democracy? H/t @JTinDC @DCBOEE pic.twitter.com/b8pl0hQwVD

— Eric Fidler (@EricFidler) October 16, 2014