by: CNN Newsource
Posted:
/ Updated:
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CNN Newsource) – A Florida woman’s Facebook post detailing mail-in ballot privacy concerns is getting a lot of attention.
“This is crazy,” Tina Brown said. “I’ve never had anything like this happen in my life.”
Brown said she noticed her ballot could be identified from the mail-in envelope as either Republican or Democratic.
She said she and her brother, who lives at the same address, were filling out their ballots at home.
“He’s a registered Democrat and I’m a registered Republican,” Brown said. “So when we were doing our votes together, we were going to send it out together. It was going to be fun.”
When she sealed the ballots, she noticed a series of numbers and a letter on the back near a bar code, labeling the envelope with either an “R” or a “D.”
“They can see who my political affiliation is, and I don’t like that,” Brown said.
She said she posted the video to educate other voters.
“We should not have our political affiliations on there,” Brown said.
The video has viewed more than 120,000 times even retweeted by President Trump.
She said her phone has been ringing off the hook since posting the video.
“Every single (call and email) has been positive, with the exception of about three, and we’re talking about thousands,” Brown said.
Vicki Davis, the Supervisor of Elections in Martin County, said she saw the video, too, and has received calls about it and says the labeling makes sure voters get their proper primary election ballot, specific to their party affiliation. Florida is a closed primary state.
Davis said fraud as a result of the labeling would be highly unlikely.
“I don’t know that a postal worker would have time to go through ballots in their general workday and remove those ballots,” Davis said.
Brown would like to see a new way of labeling ballots, without an “R” and a “D.” Davis said there are no plans for changing the labels.
“This is not propaganda,” Brown said. “It’s just really, basically, just protecting the voter.”
