Good Question: Why are there holes in election materials?

SALT LAKE COUNTY, UT — (KUTV) We are still more than two weeks until the election, but mailed-in ballots are already flying into elections offices.

At Salt Lake County's, clerk Sherrie Swensen says they have the very latest technology to get ballots in, opened, sorted and counted with both accuracy and speed.

But if you take a closer look, you'll notice holes in the process. That's not a figure of speech. There are literally holes punched through both the security sleeves into which a voter places his or her ballot as well as the envelope that is used to mail the ballots in.

“The reason for that is, when they come back to us, we want to make sure, after they're run through our machine and the ballot is removed from the envelope, even though it's an automated process, that there isn't a ballot left in the envelope,” Swensen said.

Election officials actually keep all the envelopes in a secure room for 22 months, binding chunks of them together with zip-ties. That’s the reason for the holes – so that zip ties can easily be fed through.

It's not just an organizational technique. Swensen says it’s also an important step to making sure all votes are counted because a missed ballot would stop the zip-tie from going through.

"We take the extra step to zip-tie through those envelopes and make sure that a ballot isn't left in the envelope," she said.

The holes serve as a low tech way a checking the high-tech machines.