Edward B. Foley

Edward B. Foley, also known as Ned Foley, is an American lawyer, law professor, election law scholar, and former Ohio Solicitor General. He is the theorist of the blue shift, a phenomenon in American politics in which in-person votes overstate overall percentage of votes for the Republican Party (whose color is red), while provisional votes, which are counted after election day, tend to overstate overall percentage of votes for the Democratic Party (whose color is blue). When the provisional votes are counted after the election, there is often a shift in totals toward the Democrat, or blue, candidate.

Education and career Foley graduated from Yale in 1983 with a degree in history and from Columbia Law School in 1986. From 1986–1987 he served as a law clerk for Judge Patricia M. Wald of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and from 1988–1989 for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry Blackmun. where he has taught since 1991.

Blue shift

Foley coined the term "blue shift" after the 2012 election. An election law scholar, he had been studying closely contested state results to try to predict which might be challenged legally.

2020 presidential election According to The New York Times: According to The Philadelphia Inquirer he believes "raising awareness of the blue shift can help inoculate people against unfounded claims." which had first been published in 2015.

National Task Force on Election Crises Foley participated in a 2019 bipartisan task force, the National Task Force on Election Crises, to envision, assess, and develop plans for dealing with an election crisis. Among the scenarios considered but not included in the 200-page report was a pandemic that kept people from voting in-person. The task force published pandemic-related recommendations after the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Book Foley, Edward. Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. 2016. (978-0190235277).