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With her fidgety 4-year-old son by her side, West Jordan resident Wendy Ormsby tried to vote quickly on Tuesday.

Wanting to bypass the straight party option, Ormsby tapped "personal choice."

And so did 13,400 other Salt Lake County voters, many of whom were equally as confused by the effect of their selection.

Personal Choice, with its accompanying smiley face logo, is actually a small political party. So when Ormsby went to vote for U.S. Senate, she noticed that Personal Choice candidate Roger I. Price already had her support.

"That is a tricky little deception," she said on Wednesday. "Luckily, I could just override what I have done."

The Personal Choice party has only been around for two elections and has baffled voters both times.

In 2004, 11 percent of straight party voters picked the Personal Choice party. This go around, that number increased to 14 percent.

"It is impossible that that is an accurate re-election of the true political demographic," said state Republican Executive Director Jeff Hartley.

No other third-party received more than 750 straight party votes, or less than 1 percent.

The effect of the Personal Choice mistake was muted Tuesday because most voters, like Ormsby, just went on to vote for who they wanted anyway.

While 13,400 people voted for the Personal Choice party, Price, who challenged Sen. Orrin Hatch, only received about 4,000 votes in Salt Lake County.

"Looks like you have about 9,000 dummies or so, who didn't read the instructions," said Price. "If people can't figure that out, it is not a problem with the system it is a problem with the people."

Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen wouldn't go that far. She understands the party has created confusion, but she says: "I don't know what could have been done to make it more clear."

Ormsby has an idea. She suggests adding the word "party" to the end of each selection, so instead of the ballot reading Personal Choice, it would read Personal Choice Party.

Swensen said she would discuss that idea with other clerks in the next few weeks.

"I think we need to review it on a statewide level," she said.

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