BEND, OR -- Ballots for the May 17 Primary are now appearing in local mailboxes and Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison says some may notice a change, "We’re no longer using that blue secrecy sleeve - the optional secrecy sleeve. It will not be in the packet. But we will have a little note in there; we have a flyer just to indicate that that piece of their packet is not missing. This is intentional."

Dennison tells KBND News, "The Secretary of State’s Office allowed us to make that change and no longer use it. It’ll save us money and it’ll also save us a lot of time in processing ballots."

Not to worry; voter privacy is still protected, "What we did add was a privacy weave on the inside of your ballot return envelope- it’s kind of like a banker’s envelope type of thing. So that pattern on the inside, to maintain voter privacy."

OregonLive reports about half of Oregon’s counties did away with those secrecy envelopes this election.