Does a video show "illegal cutout windows" in Maricopa County, Arizona, ballot envelopes in order to make it easy to identify Republican ballots for election-fraud purposes? No, that's not true: The window is there so the QR code can be scanned as part of ballot-quality control, former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told Lead Stories. The ballot package is not seen by election workers, he said, the envelope was approved at the state and local levels, and the 2 million ballots sent out in each statewide election by the county are machine-assembled.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the @TheSCIF account on X on May 23, 2026. It read:
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.
They will make up a completely irrelevant reason and deny the actual purpose to cover up their fraud tactics. They will use anything and everything to their advantage to rig elections. Pay attention.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @TheSCIF on X.com.)
The post and video are embedded below:
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.
-- The SCIF (@TheSCIF) May 23, 2026
They will make up a completely... pic.twitter.com/Hvf7lXtsfl
Maricopa County Deputy Elections Director for Communications Jennifer Liewer told Lead Stories in a May 26, 2026, email that the yellow envelope shown in the video is used only to mail ballots outbound to voters. When voters return their ballots, they use a separate green affidavit envelope that has no windows and contains no party information.
Richer, a Republican, served as Maricopa County recorder from January 2021 to January 2025. In that role, he oversaw the mail voting process and maintained voter registration for more than 2 million eligible voters. In another May 26, 2026, email to Lead Stories, he said there is "nothing illegal or unusual about the ballots" seen in the social media post, that the envelopes, including the windows, were "approved by many past Secretaries [of State] and County Recorders," and that "this is how it has been for many years." He continued:
The window on the envelope allows the sorting machine to a last-stage QC [quality control] to make sure that the outbound packet contains the right style of ballot (the right party and the right precinct).
The important bit is that QR code. The target area has to be sufficiently large such that even if the ballot slides around in the packet, the machine can read the QR code ...
Partisan affiliation is a public record in Arizona (as it is in most states). All you have to do is ask the SOS [Secretary of State] or the relevant county recorder.
The QR code is circled in yellow in the two ballot images below:
(Image source: post by @TheSCIF on X.com.)
Liewer said the red arrow points to additional key information:
The number referenced is the ballot style. The County produces over 30,000 ballot styles in a Primary Election based on where the person lives and which congressional, legislative, school district, city or town, etc., that they live.
Richer noted that:
The pictured ballot packet is not seen by election workers. It is machine-assembled and then delivered to the USPS [U.S. Postal Service] for delivery to the voter.
Asked about the post's claim that Maricopa County ballot envelopes had illegal "cutout windows" that let Democratic operatives identify and allegedly discard Republican ballots during Arizona's 2022 election, Richer said the playing field is the same for both parties:
What would be the theory? That Democratic operatives waylay a USPS truck and then go through ballot packets and identify the Republican Primary ballots and then throw them in the trash? And then they do this to affect... the Republican Primary? And none of the intended Republican Primary voters say anything about not getting their ballots? Seems far-fetched to say the least.
Additionally, Richer said, there are "lots" of safeguards in place to prevent ballots from being discarded or selectively handled:
Including that the voter can track his ballot. Including that the voter has a dashboard of all past elections to make sure [their] ballot was counted in every election. Including a chain of custody log for every ballot. Bipartisan teams. Bipartisan observers. Cast vote record. Post-election reports. Etc.
Liewer agreed, adding:
It is imperative to note that any time returned ballots are handled by elections workers, statute requires that it be done with a bipartisan team of two people, so there is never an opportunity for a single person to discard ballots.
Richer told Lead Stories there were no official complaints, investigations, audits, or lawsuits related to these envelope windows following the 2022 election, and he said there's no evidence that ballots were improperly rejected or discarded because of the envelope design.
Lead Stories also contacted the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, but did not receive an immediate response.
