The 2020 election is seeing unprecedented volatility leading up to November 3. Will this volatility make a difference, helping or hurting the system’s capacity to serve its purpose? This is the first of many questions about the 2020 election that this group of election law experts will tackle on this episode of Reasonably Speaking.

Every election year presents its own distinct set of challenges, but 2020 has been a uniquely challenging year. What can voters expect on and after Election Night? Election results are never final until much later – this year on December 14. On that date, electors will be appointed in all states on the basis of the popular vote in each state, but will we declare success? If not, why not; in other words, what would cause the failure to achieve closure by December 14 in one or more pivotal states? Will the pre-election volatility play a significant role in post-Election Day events?

Steven F. Huefner

Associate Reporter, Principles of the Law, Election Administration

Steven F. Huefner is director of Clinical Programs at Moritz, as well as director of the Legislation Clinic. He teaches LegislationJurisprudence, and Legal Writing. Before joining The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law faculty, Professor Huefner practiced law for five years in the Office of Senate Legal Counsel, U.S. Senate, and for two years in private practice at the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. He also clerked for Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Christine M. Durham of the Supreme Court of Utah. Professor Huefner was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar at Columbia Law School, where he served as head articles editor for the Columbia Law Review.

 

Edward B. Foley

Reporter, Principles of the Law, Election Administration

Edward Foley (known as “Ned”) directs Election Law @ Moritz at Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, where he also holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law. His book, Presidential Elections and Majority Rule (Oxford University Press, 2020), excavates the long-forgotten philosophical premises of how the Electoral College is supposed to work. His 2016 book, Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, was named Finalist for the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History and listed as one of 100 “must-read books about law and social justice.” While Foley has special expertise on the topics of recounts and provisional ballots, he has also co-authored the casebook, Election Law and Litigation: The Judicial Regulation of Politics (Aspen 2014), which covers all aspects of election law.

Derek T. Muller

Derek Muller graduated with a Juris Doctorate from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 2007. Upon graduation, Professor Muller worked as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, Missouri. He then became an associate practicing litigation with Kirkland & Ellis L.L.P. of Chicago, Illinois from 2008 to 2010 before beginning his career in academia. Professor Muller has been a visiting professor at Penn State Law, the University of Iowa College of Law, and the University of Notre Dame Law School. In 2011 he became an Associate Professor at Pepperdine Law School and was granted tenure in 2017. Professor Muller has taught courses in Election Law, Federal Courts, Civil Procedure, Administrative Law, and Evidence and he will begin teaching at Iowa Law in the Fall semester of 2020.

Franita Tolson

USC Gould School of Law

Franita Tolson is the Vice Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, and Professor of Law at USC Gould School of Law. She joined the law school in June 2017. Her scholarship and teaching are focused on the areas of election law, constitutional law, legal history and employment discrimination. She has written on a wide range of topics including partisan gerrymandering, campaign finance reform, the Elections Clause, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Her forthcoming book, In Congress We Trust?: The Evolution of Federal Voting Rights Enforcement from the Founding to the Present, will be published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press.

Jennifer Morinigo

The American Law Institute

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