I've been wondering, and Slog tipper Tom has been wondering too. He writes:

Hey Eli,

I've got a ballot question for you. I notice that the vote by mail ballot envelope is different this time around. It used to have a flap that covered up your signature and name. I liked the privacy, but it appears to have gone away. Any idea why?

I had The Stranger's Matt Luby check on this—it does seem unfortunate to lose this privacy protection, especially given that signing the outside of the ballot return envelope is mandatory—and who better to get to the bottom of things than our libertarian intern?

Matt tells me:

I just called King County Elections about the signature flaps.

Interestingly enough, the signature flaps were not added to envelopes until 2005, when state legislation decreed they had to be there.

In 2010, the state eliminated this requirement in a cost-cutting maneuver. In King County alone, eliminating the signature flap saves $150,000 per year—the envelopes were costly, as were the section of employees hired just to remove the signature flaps.

This change was implemented ahead of the primaries, so voters might have notice it then, too.

So there's the answer: You might have enjoyed your ballot envelope signature privacy—I sure did—but it turned out to be too pricey. Sorry.

(Here's an additional question: Which government action would Matt, our libertarian intern, be more upset about: The government mandating privacy flaps for ballot return envelopes or the government taking away our ballot envelope privacy flaps, and therefore taking away our signature privacy, as a cost-saving measure? Matt tells me he'll provide an answer in an upcoming post, or maybe in the comments.)