If you’ve ever looked at an election result and thought, “I guess we just have to trust it,” this conversation is for you.
Elsa sits down with Mark Gotz, known as the election expert, who has spent more than 20 years monitoring elections and wrote a practical guide on how to inspect, validate, audit, and enforce federal elections. We get specific about where modern elections feel weakest, especially as we’ve shifted from a single Election Day to a longer election month shaped by vote-by- mail.
We dig into what accountability actually looks like on the ground: signature verification, tracking how many vote-by-mail envelopes come in, and making sure those totals match the vote counts reported by election officials.
Mark explains his “election umpire” idea, why being physically present matters, and why an audit isn’t an abstract concept. It can be as basic as reconciling the paper trail so the numbers make sense.
We also talk about voter roll maintenance, inactive voters, and what federal election laws say about enforcement.
Mark points to the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, and he explains why “a person” can have the right to take action when something looks wrong.
If you’re tired of online complaints that go nowhere, you’ll walk away with a clearer sense of what to learn, what to watch, and what steps can be taken quickly.
