The watermark - if it is a true watermark - could be easily done.  True watermarks are a "woven" type mark into the paper itself to prevent counterfeiting - like the images in paper money, etc. Microdot technology could be done, but as I mentioned above, making a unique mark on every ballot is hella hard for a non-specific group to do. As with most "govt" things, they most likely call for bids to print the ballots.  Any company not set up for automatically marking the ballots would be priced out of the bid.  The secret and expensive ballot tracking systems would leave very few places that could do it. This is antithetical to "govt", since they hate sole supplier situations.    Not saying it isn't possible, but how many places are going to buy $300million (guess, obviously) pieces of equipment that only gets used every 2 years??