The Lawfare Podcast: Ned Foley on Electoral Count Act Reform

Jen Patja, Scott R. Anderson, Ned Foley
Monday, January 24, 2022, 12:00 PM
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As the prospect of broader election reform has grown more remote, bipartisan discussions have increasingly come to center on one long standing law: the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Designed to regulate the process through which Congress counts electoral votes, ambiguities in this antiquated law have been a frequent source of anxiety, most recently in the wake of the 2020 election, when many feared outgoing President Trump would successfully capitalize on them to prevent the certification of his loss. To discuss the Electoral Count Act and its potential reform, Scott R. Anderson sat down with Ned Foley, a professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and a leading expert in election law. They discussed the ordinance of the act, a recent congressional report outlining possible reforms and what limits the Constitution may put on what reform can accomplish.

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Jen Patja

Jen Patja

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Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Scott R. Anderson

Scott R. Anderson

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Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
Ned Foley

Ned Foley

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Ned Foley holds Ohio State University’s Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law and directs its election law program. He currently is a Guggenheim Fellow and Visiting Professor at University of Arizona’s law school. He is the author of Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States (Oxford University Press, revised edition 2024), and Presidential Elections and Majority Rule (Oxford University Press, 2020). He writes about improving electoral procedures at Common Ground Democracy.

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