Editing mistake led to capitalization of Republican incumbents' names on Nashville sample ballots

An editing error caused two names on the Davidson County sample ballot for the Nov. 3 election to be all in capitals, officials said.

The actual ballots for voters have been printed properly, they said.

Voters noticed that while most candidates were listed with the traditional mixed capitalization for proper nouns like names, some were named in all capitals.

The Republican nominee in Tennessee Senate District 20, Steven Reid Dickerson, for example, was in all caps, while his opponent, Democratic nominee Heidi Campbell, was not. 

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The other misprint was in the race for Tennessee Senate, District 18; Republican Ferrell Haile was in all caps, independent John A. Gentry was not.

“Our sincere apologies to Democratic Party nominee Heidi Campbell in the Tennessee Senate District 20 race and to Independent candidate John A. Gentry in the Tennessee Senate District 18 race for listing their opponents’ names in all caps,” Jeff Roberts, administrator of elections, said in an emailed statement. “It was simple human error. There was no intent to favor a particular candidate.”

The sample ballot is separate from official ballots printed for use in by-mail or absentee voting or on Election Day. It's created by elections staff and is basically just a document they put together so voters have an idea of what will be on the list in November, he said. 

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Roberts first became aware of the issue when Campbell called his office, he said. 

"It was our error, we've contacted the parties involved," Roberts said. 

Other elected officials took notice of the discrepancies. 

"Oh look," said Kristi Cornett, Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committeewoman for District 18, on Twitter. "The Republican controlled election commission capitalized the names of their incumbent candidates & only those candidates on the sample ballot released today. These things impact candidates. Republicans NEVER play fair. #tnleg"

Cornett noted that the two races with the capitalization issue included Republican incumbents. 

"It was just a mistake. In August, everyone's name was in all caps. This time, look at the number of presidential candidates, we wanted to get them all in one column so we went to a smaller font," Roberts said when reached by phone. "We were cutting and pasting. We had multiple people proof it, and no one caught it."

The version available on the Davidson County Election Commission website was updated with uniform capitalization on Tuesday afternoon. 

Reach reporter Mariah Timms at mtimms@tennessean.com or 615-259-8344 and on Twitter @MariahTimms.