The cost of producing absentee voting envelopes that include new information required by election law changes signed into law last summer is forcing some counties to send out regular envelopes, rather than double envelopes or envelopes designed with a flap to hide party affiliation labels.

Absentee voters mailing ballots to Chatham and Guilford counties this year will have to use envelopes that clearly show party affiliation, as well as other information mandated by the new law such as witness and notary signatures and a statement warning that voter fraud is a felony.

Via the News & Observer:

Charlie Collicutt, director of elections for Guilford County, said because of the added information, the county had to redesign its envelope “Our board has traditionally liked the flap. It covers stuff up that people might be sensitive about,” he said. “We have spent a little bit more per envelope because we believed that was important, but in this case because of the time constraints with getting the new language on the envelope and with the vendor failing to deliver on a certain date, it wasn’t possible.” Dawn Stumpf, director of the Chatham County Board of Elections, agreed. “I’m sure that concerns people and it concerns us, but there’s not a whole lot we can do about that, especially because party is public record. Everything that appears on the envelope is public record,” Stumpf said. “It was either have this big envelope that’s going to cost the voter more or we use an envelope without the flap.”

News & Observer – New NC voting law alters absentee ballot envelopes

“I’m from a rural town in North Carolina, and they say there’s always equal makeup of each party on the county boards, but there are a lot of people who handle the envelope before the precinct,” a medical student living in Boston told the News & Observer. “It makes me uncomfortable to know that it’s obviously a ballot, and I just don’t feel comfortable having that envelope have my party affiliation.”

The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is April 29. More information here.

Absentee ballots must be returned by May 6 at 5 p.m.

Read the 2014 voter guide.