The problem with your theory is that you fail to mention that these people are risking their lives to vote. There has been horrific bombings by US supplied weapons to Ukraine on a Mother and Baby Centre. Today a store that was totally destroyed by Ukraine using US supplied HIMARS, with many wounded, yesterday a bus, killing the driver and several passengers, including a 14 year old boy. Last week a cafe, where the bodies of two women who were there to meet and have a coffee, were killed. Another shop where the missile used left the upper torso of a young women on the pavement, her legs just visible under the rubble. Another last week at the height of the attacks, Zelensky threatened he would hunt down those that voted and they would be jailed. This hasn’t stopped those wishing to rid their lives of these Nazi scum. In a day or so Putin will sign a decree moving these people into the protection of Russia. The 60% of the Russian Armed Forces that have not seen fighting will join their brothers in the Donbas. Add to that the Wagners that are already in some areas of the Donbas. The Chechens have also mobilised. Thousands upon thousands. In a couple of days the skies over Ukraine will be black with Russian fighters. Ukraine and the West have poked The Bear one too many times. And Putin’s final words to the EU, NATO, Pentagon, Ukraine, globalists etc. - We’re not bluffing.

funny, though. I see only paper ballots. No machines. We could learn something from that.

Lots of decentralised operations, to mitigate large groups of people in one place which could be seen as a target. Those groups are one person checking IDs and writing down names (to check against central registers; one person to hand out ballots, and one person carrying the ballot box. So there is separation between the person carrying a stack of blank ballots and the person carrying the box. The ballot boxes are transparent, so that everyone can see what's inside. A stuffing operation would be glaringly obvious. Note to USA: they check everyone's ID (how racisss).

The most irregular thing I saw was one voting group, who did not provide a 'privacy shelter' for the voters - They put an opened folder on the desk, in a way so others could not see: no-one cared, because they all feel the same way.

Also, the Western MSM keeps hammering the 'occupied' status of these regions, setting the narrative that this is a 'sham' election. These people look relieved and happy, while risking their lives to vote. And I have yet to see a single gun pointing at anyone's head while voting. NVM.