Washington Mail-In Ballots Require Party Declaration On Envelopes

Washington state voters are raising concerns about election integrity after receiving mail-in ballots that require them to mark their party preference on the outside of the envelope.

The news has come to light on social media platform X as new voters posted pictures of the controversial ballots.

Although the ballots are for primary elections, this is not the first time voters have been asked to provide party identification on the outside of their mail-in ballots. The party identification requirement has been on mail-in ballots in 2020 and 2016. However, in light of the election fraud issues that have become the center of public debate since 2020, many voters are now expressing great concern about the safety of their ballots.

Jim Walsh, the Republican Chair for Washington state, has called the alarming requirement merely a “questionable design decision.” But placing party identification on the outside of ballot envelopes creates many obvious dangers to the integrity of elections. A mail-carrier could find the envelope and discard it if they don’t like the choice of the voter, or it could make it easier for corrupt election officials to discard it as well.

Washington voters are required by law to declare their party affiliation in primary elections, but placing that declaration on the outside of mail-in ballots was the decision of the Washington Secretary of State after consulting with local county officials. Democrats have also blocked Republican efforts to declare an “unaffiliated” status when voting in primary elections.

The status of election integrity in the United States has come under dramatically increased scrutiny since the controversial 2020 presidential election, when Donald Trump declared that targeted election fraud in key voting districts of specific states cost him the election. Indeed, there were many anomalies and irregularities in the 2020 election that have never been thoroughly investigated, such as pausing the election count in the middle of the night to pick it up again the following day, as well as other mail-in ballot shenanigans.

Such circumstances, say Republicans, create ideal conditions for ballot harvesting. And although there was great outcry from Republican voters to investigate the irregularities, most election officials summarily ignored them. This led to the infamous Jan. 6 capitol protest, which has been used by enemies of Donald Trump to try and cast liability on him for any violence that occurred and thereby try and prohibit him from seeking reelection.

Donald Trump has made restoring election integrity across the nation a key goal of his second presidential term.