EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Madison County Board Member Chris Guy received calls from voters wondering why their voter affiliation appeared on an envelope containing their mail-in ballot.

“The concern is this should not be included,” said Guy. “I’ve also received since then other snapshot photos of other ballots that includes a ‘D’ for Democrat affiliation or an ‘R’ as well.”

Madison County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza said her office is blacking out any of those identifiers after discovering a printing mistake involving a third-party vendor.

“I take responsibility for that,” Ming-Mendoza said.

She said the party identifiers did not appear on any of the envelopes voters use to mail in their ballot.

“On the return envelope that comes back to the county clerk’s office, there’s nothing on there that says a party affiliation,” said Ming-Mendoza.

The party identifiers were on the envelopes mailed to some voters and on voter certification envelopes. The certification envelope is what election judges see before processing a ballot. Ming-Mendoza said her office is blacking out those identifiers before they will be processed.

“No election judge will see any kind of party affiliation when they go to verify a signature on the certification envelope,” she said.

Guy is not accusing anyone of anything nefarious but has concerns.

“If this vendor is used across the country, what other jurisdictions in the state, or country could be using this vendor?” he asked.

FOX 2 reached out to that vendor identified as VOTEC and has not received a comment from them.