I understand that many voters in the Washington presidential primary election have complained about the requirement to indicate their party-affiliation on the return envelope. Most cite privacy concerns, as the mailman, or whoever else sees the envelope, may make a note of that affiliation.
However there is also reason to object that the secrecy of the ballot itself is compromised. The Voter’s Pamphlet warns on Page 5 that the ballot will not be counted if the voter-affiliation does not tally with the party for which a ballot is cast. Presumably this will be checked at tabulation time, and that requires that ballot and return envelope are compared.
I’d like to suggest for future reference that the party-affiliation declaration be placed on the yellow “security envelope” in which the ballot has to be placed. This would break the identification link engendered by placing the declaration on the outer envelope, which must be separated from the ballot before tabulation, that way avoiding this secrecy violation. This also helps protect privacy.
