This is another case of fact-checking the wrong claim in order to be able to put a great big red X mark for propaganda purposes.
The federal government does not need to control printing and auditing ballots directly to participate in election security. The federal government could easily issue regulations that set standards for printing ballots used in federal elections, and the private companies handling those tasks would be extremely likely to comply with those regulations when supplying ballots to states. States might not even be aware of these regulations, they would simply contract with their usual vendors and the vendors would provide the requested number of ballots to spec, and the spec would include the watermarks.
None of this is a claim that that actually took place. I have no knowledge of such a thing. However, Snopes asked the Department of Homeland Security about this, and DHS said:
So, in their own article claiming to fact check this idea as false, Snopes demonstrated that:
* DHS and CISA are federal agencies that assist states with election security * Local election offices have security and detection measures in place, including watermarks
We have more information from the Washington Post, published October 30th, 2020 -- just days before the election.
Working with states on auditable paper trails for ballots, check.
The only remaining question is whether there is a federal "sting operation" to catch voter fraud using ballot security measures. There may or may not be. (I doubt there is a formal "sting" operation; that's a colloquial term). But after the chaos of this election, when the recounts begin, might DHS and/or CISA step up and say "Um, guys, if those ballots are valid, they should all have a watermark like this, or an exact paper weighting of this value, or a barcode like this, according to the standards we set when they were printed..."?
I would expect that to happen.
It's not a sting operation because they're not inviting people ahead of time to commit fraud. And it doesn't have to be under federal control directly for the ballots to have a variety of security measures. But if the fraud happens, I would expect the appropriate federal agencies to get involved once the counting stops and the recounts or audits begin.
This entry was published Sat Nov 07 09:43:45 CST 2020 by TriggerFinger
and last updated 2020-11-07 05:42:08.0.
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