Edward B. Foley

Columbus, Ohio

Education: Yale College, BA; Columbia University School of Law, JD

Edward B. Foley writes on matters relating to election law and administration. Foley holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at Ohio State University, where he heads the university’s election law program. He also serves as an NBC News election law analyst. In 2016, his book “Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States” was named a finalist for the David J. Langum Sr. Prize in American Legal History; his most recent book, “Presidential Elections and Majority Rule,” explores the conception and evolution of the electoral college, while making the case for reform.
Latest from Edward B. Foley

Forget the Trump trials. He might already be ineligible for 2024.

If the Constitution bars Trump from the presidency, then he’s not entitled to be on the ballot, and state election officials should keep him off it.

August 15, 2023
Former president Donald Trump at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on Saturday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

Alaska’s ranked-choice voting is flawed. But there’s an easy fix.

The way Alaska uses ranked-choice voting caused the defeat of a Republican whom most Alaska voters preferred to the Democrat who ended up winning.

November 1, 2022
Candidates for Alaska's sole U.S. House seat on Wednesday in Anchorage. From left, they are former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R); Rep. Mary Peltola (D); Republican Nick Begich; and Chris Bye, a Libertarian. (Mark Thiessen/AP)

There is a better option to keep Trump out of office than prosecution

Congress can move to disqualify him from running again under the 14th Amendment.

June 23, 2022
Former president Donald Trump is displayed on a screen as the House Jan. 6 select committee holds its fourth public hearing on Capitol Hill on June 21. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

How our system of primary elections could destroy democracy

The fundamental idea of an election is that the will of the majority should prevail. We undermine that objective when the rules let candidates win with a mere plurality of votes.

May 19, 2022
In Pennsylvania, Republican Senate candidates Mehmet Oz, left, and David McCormick are currently separated by 0.1 percent of the vote. (Michelle Gustafson/Bloomberg News)

Can Alaska save democracy?

The state's new ranked-choice voting system gives Republican moderates a fighting chance against Trump and his allies.

February 10, 2022
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Jan. 11 in Washington. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)

How Congress can fix the Electoral Count Act

The 1876 law was never meant to turn Congress into some sort of national recount board.

January 4, 2022
Vice President Mike Pence officiates as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to confirm the electoral college votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The threat of Trump illegally taking power in 2025 is real. Here’s what Congress can do.

Rewrite the law on certifying the presidential election. Focus vote reform efforts on vote-counting. Require members of Congress to be elected by majorities.

September 28, 2021
Road closures and security fence around the Capitol building on Sept. 18.

Is same-day voter registration good? Yes. Is it essential? Probably not.

Senate Democrats are making a tactical mistake by including same-day registration in their compromise voting rights bill.

September 20, 2021
A poll worker talks to a voter before they vote on a paper ballot on Election Day in Atlanta on Nov. 3, 2020.

The House is supposed to represent the people. It doesn’t.

Partisan gerrymandering has frustrated the intention of the Framers.

August 9, 2021
The U.S. Capitol dome on Aug. 2 in Washington.

How Congress should fix the Supreme Court’s damage to the Voting Rights Act

Congress has the power, and should use it, to dull the Supreme Court's neutering of the Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

July 8, 2021
Activists rally outside City Hall in Los Angeles on July 7, calling on Congress to pass the For the People Act to expand voting rights. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)