Edward Foley
Ohio State election-law professor who first identified the 'blue shift' in late-counted ballots.
Provisional ballots carried Democrat Raymond Smith 293 votes past Representative Greg Murphy in North Carolina's 3rd District on 11 November, the late Democratic drift Foley first identified as the "blue shift" in 2013.
Last refreshed: 11 November 2026
Timeline for Edward Foley
Raymond Smith overtakes Murphy in NC-3
US Midterms 2026Mentioned in: Judge blocks DOJ 2020 poll-worker demand
US Midterms 2026Background
Foley holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at Ohio State's Moritz College of Law and directs its election law programme. He was Ohio's solicitor general in 1999 and 2000 and wrote Ballot Battles (2016). He is an election-law analyst for MS NOW in 2026.
His 2013 article The Big Blue Shift first identified the pattern: ballots counted after polling night lean Democratic, provisionals and late mail above all. He and MIT's Charles Stewart III measured it in Explaining the Blue Shift in Election Canvassing (2020).
North Carolina's 3rd showed it on 11 November. Smith won the provisionals 1,114 to 602 and turned Murphy's 233-vote polling-night lead into a 293-vote deficit. Foley has also argued that the Justice Department kept a civil route under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 after its 2020 poll-worker theory ran out of time.
What is the blue shift in elections?
Who is Edward Foley?
What did Edward Foley write about disputed elections?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 11 November 2026. Editorial standards.