I wrote to the Michigan Secretary of State to complain about the misprinted ballots, and they had this to say:
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 09:23:00 -0400 From: SOSWebMaster To: willie northway Subject: RE: ballot mishap? Hello Willie, Greetings: This is in response to our recent email inquiry. The ballot printing error is confined to a single precinct in Michigan. A very limited number of absentee ballots containing the error were released before the error was spotted as explained below. On Monday, September 27, the clerk of the City of Alma received her ballots from her printer and filled her AV ballot requests. On Tuesday, a voter called the clerk to advise that she had spotted a printing error. The error: the arrows corresponding to the presidential candidates were shifted down one position. As a result, there is no arrow pointing to Bush/Cheney - and there is an extra arrow hanging off the bottom of the list. (The extra arrow points to the heading for the U.S. House race). The error is confined to one precinct (Precinct #1) in the City of Alma. The clerk further advised that the ballot containing the error was sent to a total of 69 voters. After learning of the error, the clerk contacted the printer and the Bureau of Elections. Arrangements have been made to reissue replacement ballots to the 69 voters as soon as corrected ballots can be obtained. The printer has advised the clerk to expect delivery on Monday, October 4. Thank you for writing. Please do not hesitate to call this office if you have any questions. Best Regards, Michigan Department of State