Ever since Oregon approved voting exclusively by mail in 1998, Hasso Hering took comfort that a sealable “secrecy envelope” would guarantee his right to a private ballot. So when the 72-year-old from Benton County opened his ballot for the May primary, he was confused to see a non-sealable “secrecy sleeve” instead. Benton is among at least five Oregon counties, including Multnomah County, Marion County, Deschutes County and Washington County, to trade sealed envelopes for sleeves in hopes of speeding up ballot counts while still protecting voters’ privacy. But voters such as Hering worry the change could make it easier for elections workers to put a name to a ballot marking. “It is a principle of our ballot,” said Hering, a retired journalist. “How you vote is your business and no one else’s.”
State law requires counties to receive permission from the Secretary of State’s office before changing their ballot secrecy provisions. The office must find the “procedure will provide substantially the same degree of secrecy.”
“You still never have a case where someone is looking at the voted ballot along with the return envelope with the signature on it,” said Jim Williams, director of the state’s elections division, adding that “the new design cuts the processing time almost in half.”
Full Article: Switch in ballot procedures has some worried about secrecy | OregonLive.com.