Founder of True the Vote prepares for 2024, says liberty is chaotic.

True the Vote Founder Catherine Engelbrecht on Election Integrity

The lights are never off in prison, so Catherine Engelbrecht lost her sense of time; she thinks it was the early morning hours when she stood in line at the Montgomery Processing Center, a Conroe, Texas immigration detention prison, awaiting an uncomfortable medical assessment.

Engelbrecht founded the election-monitoring organization True the Vote in 2010, and she and Gregg Phillips of True the Vote were subjects of the film “2,000 Mules,” which followed the group’s investigation of activity around drop boxes in the 2020 election. Investigating election integrity means challenging powerful people. It has not been comfortable.

Even though she was an American citizen, and had not entered the U.S. illegally, in October 2022, however, she spent nine days in solitary confinement at a federal immigration detention prison.

“I’m thinking, what the hell? I shouldn’t even be here, having to do what I’m about to do. I mean, really? This is actually happening?” Engelbrecht told The Epoch Times.

Phillips was also imprisoned—both for contempt of court—after he and she refused to disclose the name of a confidential FBI informant in a civil defamation lawsuit brought by elections software company Konnech, Inc. The company didn’t like what True the Vote said about it, but later dropped the suit.

The woman in front of Engelbrecht in that prison line turned around. “She said, ‘Just remember, sweetie, in here, your life is not your own,’ and it hit me, to the marrow of my bones. Because that was true in there. But it’s not true here,” Engelbrecht said, speaking on her phone with birds chirping cheerily in the background. “This is free. And voting is free. And our country is good. And it’s worth working for. We shouldn’t take it for granted, because it can all be gone. We are in perilous times, but it is not over. We need people to wake up. If people wake up and serve, then game, set, match. We win. We get our country back for our kids.”

Reasons for Optimism

Engelbrecht has had a lot of time to think about how to do that. She returned to the United States after taking a 400- mile hike on the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail in Spain, a spiritual trek that has been taken by thousands since medieval times. Walking in solitude for three and a half weeks offers time for prayer and reflection. Through that, she landed on the word believe.

“Just believe. Do not doubt. If I have said to you that I will deliver this nation, then believe it. Don’t doubt me,” Engelbrecht thought about God’s promises as she walked. “My resolve is redoubled. I know that I’m in this for the right reasons. I know why I believe what I believe. I am not a perfect person, but I am committed to this cause. I believe we win.”

The pilgrimage got her head straight about what’s coming, she said, predicting that the 2024 election will be the battle royale for the soul the republic.

“We’re going to decide whether or not citizens care enough about freedom to actually step in and figure out what they can do to stop this runaway freight train that has become governance by dysfunction.”

She is optimistic, because after 2020, people woke up and started asking questions. Many people studied election processes in their states and election integrity groups formed around the country. More people are watching the complicated innerworkings of elections than in the past. Elections were meant to be run by the people, she said.

“It’s been a tough learning curve. There’s been a lot of misinformation. But that’s just a part of liberty. Liberty is messy. It’s not always going to be perfect. The key is to stay standing, keep asking the questions, and not get shut down or overwhelmed.”

“We need to have a very serious national discussion on the way we cast and count votes so that it is fair to everyone. And technology and data exist to do this,” Engelbrecht said. “The only reason it’s not happening is because the weaknesses in the process can be manipulated and exploited for political gain.”

Focus on Process

It is time to fight, Engelbrecht said.

“As a constitutional republic, we can fight through the power of our vote. That is the way it’s supposed to work.” But that is more than showing up on election day and wearing an ‘I voted’ sticker and never questioning what is going on behind the scenes. That makes us easy prey for political types,” Engelbrecht said. “I think it’s important for citizens to understand they have a role to play. In my opinion, every citizen who can, should serve in an election process. See it for yourself. You’ll see the dysfunction.”

As part of its 2024 platform, True the Vote has plans on numerous fronts. It aims to have election rules well defined before the election.

“What happened in 2020 has been happening, inch by inch by inch in elections for decades,” Engelbrecht said. “And then in 2020 it was just like, blow the doors off, lawlessness reigns, do whatever you want, it doesn’t matter. Then you try to take it to court after the fact, and it’s so highly political, no court is going to get involved.”

True the Vote is interested in supporting efforts to ensure that laws are followed in the 2024 cycle.

“There are many tragic cases in these last few years