Brown (Photo by Talk Radio News Service)

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, a nonpartisan agency, got in a bit of Twitter trouble earlier today when its account (@DCBOEE) sent out a tweet criticizing Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). The tweet, which was posted shortly before 11 a.m., contained a link to an editorial by Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall discussing the recent video of Brown supporters in Boston apparently mocking his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, with Native American-style war chants.

The tweet was deleted, and the board said in a subsequent tweet that the remark criticizing Brown did not originate with its staff:

“No one here put it up,” said BOEE spokeswoman Karen Raper. “We don’t know how it got up there.”

She suggested to Yahoo! News that the account could have been hacked or accessed by a former employee who still had the login information. The account’s password has since been changed, Raper said.

But Raper refused to answer DCist’s questions about which current employees are responsible for maintaining the board’s Twitter account.

The board is hardly the first District agency to suffer loose thumbs. Last month, when Christophe Tulou was let go from his job running the Department of the Environment, its Twitter account let out a tweet saying “facepalm.”

Filed Under: d.c. board of elections and ethics, elizabeth warren, gaffe, Massachusetts, scott brown, twitter,