This might sound snide, but I assure you I am asking in good faith to prove a point. What does it mean to audit the election, without skipping the complexity?

A few questions I would expect to be answered:

  How do we know all votes cast were legitimate?
  How do we know that the voting machines recorded votes correctly?
  How do we know the auditors are good faith actors?
  How do we know ballots weren't lost/delayed (mail in)?
  How do we know legitimate looking votes were cast by the right person?

My overall assertion is not that we can't know. It's that voting is so complex that this can't be easily explained in a satisfying way to (or by) a layman. It's so complex that "trust" is a core part of the election process.

Should I have to take a quarter long class in election mechanics to be satisfied that our voting system is legitimate? That's a bit of hyperbole, but I truly don't know how our elections work and I don't think I could understand them in an afternoon and it doesn't have to be that way.

Taiwan's elections are simple and self-evident. American elections are extremely complex and require trust in institutions.

Taiwan's elections optimize for trust. America's elections optimize for cost. Trust is priceless.

I really would like an explanation of what audit means. I am open to the idea of being surprised by a satisfying answer, but I am also asking because I don't think the answer will be satisfying.