Arizona primary mail ballot envelope reignites unproven fraud claims
- Published on June 1, 2026 at 22:59
- 3 min read
- By Stevie ROSENFELD, AFP USA
Maricopa County, home to Arizona's state capital Phoenix, saw some 80 percent of its voters cast early ballots in 2022. Images of a voter's political party showing through a clear cutout in the mail ballot envelopes from that year have reinvigorated unproven claims that Republican votes were mishandled. But state officials told AFP the yellow envelopes seen are only used to send primary ballots to voters and by law, a separate return envelope is provided to ensure voter party affiliation and selections remain private.
"Maricopa County ballot envelopes contained illegal 'cutout windows' in the envelopes containing actual ballots in order for Democrat operatives to allegedly identify Republican ballots to 'toss/lose' their ballots during the Arizona 2022 election," a May 23, 2026 post on X said.
The claim was amplified by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and in a video from the Maricopa County Republican Committee saying: "We SEE THROUGH what's going on with the SEE-THROUGH envelopes! This is exactly the WRONG kind of TRANSPARENCY!"
The posts spread to Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok ahead of Arizona's 2026 primary election, following years of unsubstantiated election fraud claims in the state and its largest county, Maricopa.
AFP previously debunked false claims that Republican ballots were not properly counted in the 2022 gubernatorial race which Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the general election. And there is no evidence the envelope design led to votes being discarded.
The yellow envelope in the video is utilized to mail primary ballots to voters, Jennifer Liewer, Maricopa County Deputy Elections Director for Communications, said in a May 27 email.
In Arizona, individuals registered as Democrats or Republicans must vote in that party's primary, so different ballots are sent according to party affiliation (archived here). However, the packet also includes a green envelope to return the completed ballot that does not contain any clear windows, Liewer said.
Arizona law requires that "ballot return envelopes are of a type that does not reveal the voter's selections or political party affiliation" (archived here).
Stephen Richer, who was Maricopa County Recorder in 2022, told AFP: "There is nothing illegal or unusual about the ballots."
In a May 28 email, he said that the ballot envelopes have been used in Arizona for years and he expects they will continue to be used in the upcoming primaries.
The window is intended to let a QR code show through the envelope, Richer said. This code is scanned by a sorting machine during quality control checks to ensure the ballot is being sent to the right party and precinct. Richer said the cutout must be large enough so the code can be seen even if the ballot moves in the packet.
The outgoing ballot envelopes with the cutout are not seen by election workers, Richer said, but machine assembled and mailed to the voter via the US postal service.
A review of the Heritage Foundation's election fraud database did not show any convictions from the 2022 election over mail ballots discarded based on party affiliation.
Chain of custody
Arizona law also requires documents verifying the chain of custody for mail-in ballots (archived here).
Maricopa County has "robust tracking and security procedures in place to document and ensure proper chain-of-custody of early ballots on Election Day," and observed them in 2022, according to the county's elections website (archived here).
Voters can track their ballot via text or email notifications and individuals can verify when it has been prepared, mailed, received, verified or counted (archived here).
Richer said this is one of several safeguards to ensure ballots are properly handled, in addition to chain of custody logs for every ballot, bipartisan teams and observers, cast vote records, and post-election reports.
Arizona does not require a reason to vote absentee and those enrolled in the Active Early Voter List (AEVL) automatically receive a ballot by mail (archived here). As of June 1, more than 1.9 million Maricopa County residents were registered with AEVL (archived here).
Current Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is involved in a power struggle with the Board of Supervisors over how to divide election responsibilities which threatens to undermine trust in upcoming elections.
AFP has fact-checked more claims about US politics here.
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