An inadvertent omission is forcing the 49 journalists on the North American Car and Truck of the Year (NACOTY/NATOTY) jury to stage a revote.

On Thursday, the widely-regarded group announced its three car and three truck finalists. The Honda Fit, the Saturn Aura, and the Toyota Camry are finalists for the 2007 North American Car of the Year. The Chevrolet Silverado, Ford Edge, and Mazda CX-7 are finalists for the 2007 North American Truck of the Year.

Unfortunately, it turns out, the ballots, the second in a three-stage voting process, failed to include one of the semi-finalists, Jeep's completely updated Wranger. As a result, organizers felt it critical to stage a re-vote. However the make-up balloting turns out, the Silverado, Edge and CX-7 will remain finalists. But should the Wrangler score high enough, it would be added as a fourth finalist, a first for the award selection process.

Only the truck side of the ballot is being recast. The passenger car finalists, consisting of the Honda Fit, Saturn Aura and Toyota Camry, are firmly locked in place.

The semi-finalist re-vote will be completed by Tuesday, December 19, with the finalists for each category chosen in a vote that wraps up by January 2. The winners will be announced at the opening press conference for the North American Internal Auto Show, inDetroit, on Sunday, January 7.

Because of the large number of journalists and the wide range of publications they represent, the North American Car and Truck of the Year is seen as one of the least biased and most prestigious awards in the auto industry. With rare exception, winners have routinely gone on to strong success in the North American automotive market.

TheCarConnection.com's publisher, Paul A. Eisenstein, has been a long-time member of the NACOTY jury.

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