Officials in Mississippi said a proposed design for its new state flag featuring a giant mosquito has been rejected and mistakenly made it past the screening process.
After years of criticism and attempts to change the state flag, Mississippi recently enacted legislation to remove the Confederate flag symbol and include the phrase “in God we trust” in whatever new design is chosen for a new state flag by a nine-person commission.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History said Tuesday that a design featuring the annoying insect should not have been among the 147 design proposals to make the second round after an initial 3,000 submissions.
A design featuring a white square with red borders and a giant mosquito encircled by stars was among those submissions and was only included because of human error.
“The mosquito flag advanced to Round Two due to a typo in a list of flag numbers submitted by one commissioner,” the agency said in a statement. “That commissioner has requested that the flag be removed from the Round Two gallery, and MDAH staff has complied.”
Many of the approved designs, which can be viewed online, feature the magnolia, the state flower. The commission will narrow their selections to a top five by Friday and choose one design, or design one of their own, in September that will go on the November ballot.
If the design that goes on the ballot is not approved through the statewide vote, the commission will restart the process.