Why do Arizona General Election mail-in ballot envelopes identify my Party?

[ThoughtCriminal]

On the OUTSIDE of the envelope for a GENERAL election, it identifies my party registration. It is visible to anyone that handles the ballots.

I understand how these ballots are handled AFTER they arrive at the recorder's office. But I feel that for a general election there should be NOTHING on the outside of the envelope that identifies the party preference of the voter. I don't understand why Arizona does this.

Another reason I take my ballot directly to our County Recorder's office.

[brush]

1. That shouldn't happen. It's just inviting election fraud.

[Ptah]

2. That's not the case in Pima County. Where are you?

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Gila County

[Mike 03]

4. This is the case with my ballot envelope too. I'm in the same county, district #4.

I'll keep an eye on this thread and see what the advice is as to what to do. I'm not far from a Recorder's Office, so maybe I should take it there.

Thanks for posting this.

One thing I'll do is drop an email to the editor of my local newspaper and ask them if they can explain why this is the case.

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. My best guess

Is that Gila county is using the same output to print the envelopes for the primaries and they are not unchecking a box when printing the general election ballot. I note that at the bottom shows "Ballot Requested: DEM Reg Party: DEM"

[Mike 03]

8. Thank you. I think you're correct. My party affiliation has been on the exterior of the envelope

in prior general elections. But with the stakes so high, and divisions so pronounced, it worries me more this year.

My thinking at this point is that I'm leaning towards mailing it normally. If I go down to my local registrar's office, I actually have no idea who I'm handing my ballot to. It's a small office in a small town in a deeply red area. I really don't want my ballot to stand out in any way, shape or form, or to give a single unsupervised person time alone with my ballot. I want it to be in a big pile with other ballots and other mail where more than one person is present so the likelihood of anything happening to it is remote. I'm not going to, as some people have suggested, put a bunch of stamps on it (our ballots are postage-paid). I just want it to look like every other ballot and for it to work its way through the process.

Also, I have a really good relationship with my mail carrier and know he wouldn't do anything to my ballot.

I know that sounds a little paranoid and maybe counter-intuitive.

If there are flaws in my thinking, I want people to point it out. But for now, I think I'll go with regular mail. Our mail hasn't been slowed down and if I mail it Tuesday or Wednesday, it should have plenty of time to get where it needs to go.

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. Checking your Arizona ballot by mail status

https://my.arizona.vote/AbsenteeTracker.aspx

[Mike 03]

10. Thank you for this.

I'll also pass this information on to family members in this area.



Just for the heck of it, I contacted an AP reporter named Jude Joffe-Block, located in Phoenix, who has written about this question of identifying information on ballot envelopes, but haven't heard back yet. I generally don't expect responses from people I don't know, but this is such a pertinent question and I thought she might have insight. But I think the answer is probably the one you proposed above, and probably not nefarious. Thanks again for starting this conversation.

[liberalla]

11. Thank you for the link!

[ChazII]

5. I am in Maricopa

and I am not seeing party registration.

[AZ8theist]

7. Same here...

I live in Mesa. There is NO party identification anywhere on the ballot or on the envelope.