For more than two centuries, the U.S. Constitution and legal precedent have held that elections, even for federal officeholders, are the administrative domain of state and local governments. But now President Trump and much of the Republican congress are pushing a federal bill mandating proof-of-citizenship requirements and other restrictions, which critics say would make it harder for millions of eligible voters to cast a ballot.
Enter longtime GOP lawyer Ben Ginsberg and the Bipartisan American Election Project. Ginsberg and former Obama White House counsel Bob Bauer have launched the initiative to fight the proposed changes and to defend the professional, nonpartisan conduct of elections by state and local officials. Ginsberg, who has collaborated with Bauer since they co-chaired the 2013 Presidential Commission on Election Administration, joins Terms of Engagement hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss election integrity as America approaches the 2026 midterms.
About our Guest:
Ben Ginsberg is the Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a nationally known political law advocate representing participants in the political process. His clients have included political parties, political campaigns, candidates, legislators, governors, political action committees, individuals and four of the past six Republican presidential nominees, most recently Mitt Romney. He represented the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns as national counsel and played a central role in the 2000 Florida recount. He has also served as co-chair of the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration, which produced a much-lauded report on best practices for state and local officials to make U.S. elections run better. His academic background includes being a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.
About Terms of Engagement
From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.
Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.
Contact Us
Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at info@ash.harvard.edu.
About the Hosts
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.
Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.
Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group
