AI mistranslates candidate’s name on Hilversum election website
A translation error temporarily changed candidate Hester Bais’s name to ‘Horses Fuck’ on the municipal election website’s English-language version.
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Hilversum municipality has confirmed an error on its English-language election website. An AI translation tool temporarily turned the name of council candidate Hester Bais into ‘Horses (H.) Fuck’.
The error appeared on the English-language version of the municipal page where voters can find information about candidates. According to NH Nieuws, the candidate is standing for the Libertaire Fractie Durlacher. The translation has since been corrected, NH Nieuws and the municipality report.
According to the municipality, AI was used to provide information about the municipal elections in other languages. The municipality is not required to do so, but wants to make the information more accessible to residents who prefer to read in English.
The name appears to have been interpreted word for word by the software. NH Nieuws writes that ‘Hester’ is associated with horses in Norwegian and that ‘Bais’ may have been confused with a French term. The precise technical cause remains unclear.
The error was not limited to the name. According to NH Nieuws, there were also striking translations elsewhere on the website, including a literal translation of the name of residential care centre Nieuw Kerkelanden as ‘New Churchlands’.
The issue shows that automatic translation in public information is not merely a question of style. A list of candidates is formal election information; an error can affect a candidate’s recognisability and mislead voters.
The municipality says that not every translation can be checked word for word. From that perspective, human oversight is particularly appropriate for names, addresses, party details and other elements where a small error changes the meaning.
For now, this concerns an error on the English-language website, not a change to the official list of candidates. The Electoral Council (Kiesraad) states that the central electoral committee checks the validity of candidates and lists. It has therefore not yet been established whether the translation error affected the official list.
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One story, several perspectives
What is established
- The municipality temporarily published an incorrect translation of a candidate’s name.
- The error appeared on an English-language municipal election page.
- The municipality used AI for the translations.
Left
Arguments Public information must be reliable and accessible to everyone; human oversight should therefore be mandatory in elections, especially when AI processes names and political information.
Values Equality, inclusion and public responsibility.
Consequences More oversight costs time and money, but reduces the risk of minority groups or candidates being misrepresented.
Centre
Arguments AI can help municipalities provide information in several languages more quickly, as long as high-risk elements such as names, parties and voting information are systematically checked.
Values Accessibility, practicability and proportionate oversight.
Consequences Risk-based checking can preserve the benefits of translation technology without requiring every sentence to be rewritten manually.
Right
Arguments Municipalities should be cautious about experimental technology in formal election communications; responsibility for errors cannot be assigned to an algorithm.
Values Administrative accountability, reliability and clear responsibility.
Consequences Using less AI prevents reputational damage, but may limit the speed and multilingual accessibility of municipal information.
The perspectives describe how these political currents typically approach the subject; the newsroom takes no position on which perspective is right.
Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The error, the candidate involved, the municipal AI translation tool and the correction have been confirmed by independent sources. The technical explanation is cautiously presented as a possible cause.
- confirmed Hester Bais was temporarily displayed as ‘Horses (H.) Fuck’. — NH Nieuws describes the error and identifies the candidate. source
- confirmed The municipality used AI to translate election information. — The municipality confirmed this, according to NH Nieuws. source
- confirmed Other translations on the site were also striking or incorrect. — NH Nieuws mentions, among others, New Churchlands as a translation of Nieuw Kerkelanden. source
- uncertain The error did not change the official list of candidates. — The sources make clear that this concerned a website translation, but publish no separate legal decision on the status of the official list. source
Editor's note
The translation error and the use of AI were confirmed by the municipality and NH Nieuws. The presumed linguistic route of the error is an analysis by NH Nieuws, not a technical explanation fully reconstructed by the municipality.Sources
- Vertaalfout op verkiezingssite Hilversum: kandidaat-raadslid heet ineens 'Horses Fuck' — NH Nieuws
- Who can I vote for? Gemeenteraadsverkiezing 2026 — Gemeente Hilversum
- Beoordeling kandidatenlijsten — Kiesraad
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