Let's say you're a foreign power and you've decided to use counterfeit absentee ballots to sway the U.S. presidential election. Here's what you would need to do in just one state:

1. Get a list of absentee voters in that state. Determine which ones are not going to vote so that you don't arouse suspicion by sending any duplicate ballots.

2. Get the signatures on file for each of the voters whose ballots you are going to forge. In some states, you may also need to get a copy of their driver's license or other ID, forge a second signature or make a counterfeit notary stamp.

3. Determine the size, weight, font and design of the ballots and envelopes in each county in that state so that you can duplicate them. Just a few ballots with a slightly different paper would attract attention and lead to an investigation which could disrupt your plans.

4. For each voter whose ballot you are forging, determine the exact local races that will be on it and duplicate percent and voter ID numbers from the file.

5. Smuggle your counterfeit ballots with all the forged information into the U.S. and send them through the right post offices so that they have the proper postmarks. You wouldn't want to arouse suspicion by having a Vladivostok postmark on that ballot envelope!

6. Make sure you do all of this in time to meet the state's varying deadlines for mail-in ballots while also not duplicating any last-minute ballots sent in by the people whose ballots you are counterfeiting.

7. Do all of this not just a few dozen times but tens of thousands of times -- enough to make the difference in a state election -- without getting caught.

8. Make sure you pick the right state! Wouldn't want to spend all this energy rigging Wisconsin's election if Arizona or Minnesota turn out to be the crucial state. Maybe do it in a few states to hedge your bets. So, probably need to forge a hundred thousand ballots at least.

9. That's just the generic version, too. Some states use electronic signature matching or print special barcodes on the envelopes for ballot tracking that would need to be counterfeited as well.

10. After your henchman finishes explaining all of this, do you, the nefarious foreign despot, still go through with it? Or do you try something else?