Mail ballots for the September Primary are supposed to be sent out by this Friday, September 1. Secretary of State Sam Reed estimates that 2 million mail ballots will be sent, of which fewer than half will be returned.

Never mind the phenomenal waste of environmental resources to produce and distribute more than 1 million unwanted ballots -- contemplate the implications for the integrity of the election itself. One can only assume that many of the voters who aren't sufficiently motivated to vote their ballots won't take the effort to secure and properly destroy their own unused ballots. One can only imagine how many of these abandoned ballots that are filling the state's mailboxes and unsecured recycling bins will manage to be voted anyway.

In any case, if you have a problem with mail ballots this election -- multiple ballots sent to the same person, ballots that don't arrive, ballots sent to the dearly departed, to the non-citizen, to long ago relocated former residents of your domicile, foreign language ballots sent to English speaking voters, etc. ... please e-mail us a report. Please include a photo of any weird ballots.

UPDATE: A reader who is familiar with mail ballot issues e-mailed to observe that this year's primary ballots will start showing up in people's mailboxes right around the Labor Day weekend. If you're going to be away for a long weekend, be sure to have a trusted neighbor pick up your mail.