MacNap: It should be noted that in an electrolyte the current results from a chemical reaction at the anode and cathode (in this case the generation of hydrogen and oxygen) there are no free charge carriers in the solution itself. The cations and anions are bound together by electrostatic attraction and exist inside cloud quasi organized solvent molecules. Electrolyte ions do organize on the surface of electrodes to screen the electric field at low potentials (most of the voltage drop in an electrochemistry experiment happens within the first nanometer of the electrode surface). At the high fields quoted in the linked paper, I cannot imagine how the electrolyte could screen the applied field. It seems reasonable to me that an electric field could exist inside the cell, since electrolytes do not have free charges that can migrate to the surface of the dielectric.
Electrolytes do not conduct electrons, they accept electrons and donate electrons. There are no charges flowing through the solution, just reactions at the electrode surface. Murray: It only takes a very tiny percentage of charges, positive and negative to separate from the electrolyte onto the two opposite plastic cell walls to balance the 6 kv external electric field. That's a factoid I recall from 1960 freshman chemistry at MIT. Once micro and nano wide channels of breakdown within the 1 mm plastic walls, with 6 kv external metal plates outside the cells, evolve to actually cross the walls, then sporatic micro and nano electric currents will start to do complex things in tiny places on the surfaces and within the electrolyte within the cell -- the conducting channels in the walls may shut themselves down by melting the plastic on the micro and nano scale, invisible to the eye -- resulting in sporatic bursts of events.
