“Original ballots? What did they count, Xerox copies of ballots?”
That s the implication. I think, but I do not know, each ballot has a unique number/barcode. Multiple ballots with the same unique number are obvious fraud.
This is obvious fraud, if correct. It is a way to create ballots without voters. Just harvest original ballots, to avoid the possibility of paper and watermark detection. Remove the identifying number, so there is no record of where or when the ballot originated or was sent; then mark the ballot.
The ballot is sent to adjudication, and a new ballot is created, with no traceability or accountability. You can substitute ballots marked for one candidate for those marked for someone else. The ballot with no number replaces the ballot which was originally filled out, which had the number recorded by the adjudication machine.
Essentially this allows ballots to be filled out in advance, without numbers, to be substituted for legitimate ballots with numbers.
My interpretation.