All posts by Ned Foley

David Perdue and Round-Robin Voting

December 9, 2021, 6:27 amUncategorizedNed Foley

David Perdue is the self-proclaimed candidate of election subversion, publicly declaring that unlike Brian Kemp (and Brian Raffensperger) he would have attempted to thwart Joe Biden’s recount-confirmed victory in Georgia last year, if he (Perdue) had been governor then.… Continue reading

Tournament Elections with Round-Robin Primaries (published version)

December 8, 2021, 6:10 pmUncategorizedNed Foley

The Wisconsin Law Review has posted online the published version of my symposium essay setting forth a majoritarian electoral system that uses Ranked Choice Voting ballots in a nonpartisan primary, with the general election being a face-off between the primary’s… Continue reading

The loss of competitive districts–and maybe democracy

November 20, 2021, 9:11 amUncategorizedNed Foley

Those who are closely following this cycle of redistricting are aware of the reduction in the number of competitive congressional seats. Politico, for example, has a story with the title “Kiss Your Swing Districts Goodbye“. The 538 website… Continue reading

The Problem with Plurality-Winner Elections

November 3, 2021, 5:21 pmalternative voting systems, political parties, political polarization, primariesranked choice votingNed Foley

Election Law at Ohio State is pleased to present a one-hour webinar on the issue of electoral system design: The Problem with Plurality-Winner Elections – And Can Requiring Majority Winners Help Save Democracy? It’s scheduled for Friday, November 19, at… Continue reading

How best to safeguard democracy? Two conflicting views on recent display.

October 17, 2021, 11:01 amelection subversion risk, political parties, political polarizationNed Foley

I am struck by how forcefully two very different strategies for defending democracy have been advocated this past week. First, Ian Bassin on The Bulwark podcast emphasized (and I’m paraphrasing here) that the advice he heard from Europeans combatting rising… Continue reading

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment and January 6, 2025: the need for legislation now

October 14, 2021, 2:42 pmballot access, election subversion risk, electoral collegeNed Foley

All the current talk of Donald Trump running again in 2024 assumes that he’s eligible to serve as president if reelected. He’s not, or at least there’s a strong argument that he isn’t. In fairness to America’s voters, this argument ought… Continue reading

Three fixes Congress should make to save democracy

September 28, 2021, 10:36 amalternative voting systems, election subversion riskNed Foley

Here’s a new Washington Post column summarizing my takeaways from the conference that Rick organized and led last week. These are the three italicized headings for the congressional reforms that would help reduce the danger of election subversion specifically in… Continue reading

Initial Reaction to Eastman Memo

September 21, 2021, 4:56 amelection subversion risk, electoral collegeNed Foley

My first thought on reading the Eastman memo revealed yesterday was that it could wait until I do the relevant work for a planned second edition of Ballot Battles before I reflect on it in earnest. But in light of… Continue reading

Freedom to Vote bill & democracy-protection

September 20, 2021, 1:36 pmelection subversion risk, votingNed Foley

One main point of this new Washington Post column is that some specific provisions in the Senate Democrats’ bill might be both (1) unnecessary to safeguard democracy (even if desirable from a policy perspective) and (2) actually counterproductive to the… Continue reading

Democracy Protection Requires More than Voting Rights

September 17, 2021, 1:52 pmalternative voting systems, election subversion risk, primariesNed Foley

Senator Tim Kaine has a new Washington Post op-ed entitled The Jan. 6 attack demands that we protect voting rights, in which he says: “Only by passing comprehensive voting rights legislation can we live up to th[e] responsibility” to protect… Continue reading

The “Portman problem” is now also the “Gonzalez problem”

September 16, 2021, 7:38 pmalternative voting systems, election subversion risk, primariesNed Foley

Earlier today, I did a post explaining why, if the goal is to reduce the risk of Republicans repudiating the result of a valid victory in the 2024 presidential election by the Democratic candidate, the highest electoral reform priority for… Continue reading

Democrats, democracy, and “the Portman problem”

September 16, 2021, 9:40 amalternative voting systems, election subversion risk, political parties, primaries, theoryNed Foley

Can one party save democracy by itself? I don’t think so, but that seems to be the view of some, as nicely captured by Ed Kilgore in responding to my blog post How Best to End “Electoral McCarthyism”? Kilgore acknowledges:… Continue reading

Freedom to Vote Act and Same-Day Registration?

September 14, 2021, 5:48 amelection subversion riskNed Foley

NPR is reporting this morning that the newly unveiled electoral reform bill put together by Senate Democrats, including Manchin and Klobuchar, would “ensure every state offers same-day voter registration.” I did not see that particular provision mentioned in this morning’s… Continue reading

How best to end “Electoral McCarthyism”?

September 13, 2021, 8:49 amelection subversion risk, political parties, political polarizationNed Foley

As regular ELB readers know, I’ve characterized the problem of Trump’s “Big Lie” about a “stolen” 2020 election as an electoral version of the kind of “paranoid” strain of American politics that Hofstadter classified the Red Scare version of McCarthyism… Continue reading