The watermark bit makes no sense. Ballots are printed by commercial shops, not by the government.
Correct. I’m wondering what Piecenik is doing. He is the real deal, but this stuff just doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s psyops. I guess they could have embedded some watermarked ballots but definitely not all of them.
Printers print, papermills manufacter the paper. The watermark could be in the paper. What are the specifications for the paper ballot paper? I am sure you don’t just crack some reams of white paper open and start printing ballots.
Many commercial printers have updated to a digital printer. As such, they are required to watermark. It is a required currency / anti-forgery protection. However, not all print shops have update to the digital printer format, so there are likely shops that do not.
To take advantage of the water mark technology, there would need to be a requirement for ballots to be printed in a controlled manner. Only approved printers, using water marks, with crypto hashes of the serial number printed on the ballot.
Any ballot that does not comply with the above standard is tossed.