The Secretary of State’s office contracted with a vendor in Arizona to mail out absentee ballots for the June 9 general primary. The vendor started mailing out the ballots on April 22.

Instead of creating the usual white inner envelope and an outer envelope printed with an Oath, the vendor created a white paper “sleeve” as the inner envelope. Although the instructions say to enclose and securely seal the voted ballot in the smaller of the two envelopes, the white folded paper sleeve will work just fine.

Please put your voted ballot into the white paper sleeve and then place it into the Oath envelope, sign the Oath and return the ballot. Do not tape or staple the paper sleeve, because the ballot might become damaged as it is removed.

The reason there are two envelopes is to ensure ballot privacy. As staff prepares the ballots for counting, the voted ballot is separated from the outer envelope that identifies the voter’s name. Staff never sees how any person has voted. In this case, Cobb Elections staff will handle this sleeve in the same way as a sealed envelope.

Please email info@cobbelections.org with any further questions.