Here is our weekly round-up on election-related legislation. In it, you’ll find the following information:
- Noteworthy bills: Here, we identify and report on the contents and legislative status of noteworthy bills.
- Recent activity: Here, we report on the number of bills acted on within the past week.
- The big picture: Here, we look at the bills in the aggregate.
- Legislative status: How many bills have been introduced, voted upon, or enacted into law?
- Concentration of activity: What states have seen the highest concentration of legislative activity?
- Partisan affiliation of sponsorship: How many bills have been sponsored by Democrats vs. Republicans?
- Subject: What subjects are most commonly addressed in the bills?
Noteworthy bills
This part of our report highlights recent activity on specific noteworthy bills. A bill is noteworthy if it meets one or more of the following criteria:
- It has been enacted into law.
- It is poised to be enacted into law.
- It is the subject of significant debate in the legislature.
- It is the subject of significant commentary by activists, journalists, etc.
TN SB2558: This bill requires counties to use voting machines that produce voter-verifiable paper audit trails, effective starting Jan. 1, 2024. This bill allows counties to seek extensions of up to two years to comply with the requirement. A voter-verifiable paper audit trail is defined as a “permanent, individual paper document that is marked either manually by the voter or with the assistance of a device and verified by the voter as correctly reflecting the voters made by a voter.”
Legislative history and status: On April 27, both the state House and the state Senate approved SB2558 unanimously. Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed the bill into law on June 3
Political context: Tennessee is a Republican trifecta, meaning that Republicans control the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
Recent activity
Since June 3, 50 bills have been acted on in some way (a 27.5 percent decrease as compared to last week’s total of 69 bills). These 50 bills represent 2.0 percent of the 2,505 bills we are tracking. Of these 50 bills, 20 (40.0 percent) are from states with Democratic trifectas, 10 (20.0 percent) are from states with Republican trifectas, and 20 (40.0 percent) are from states with divided governments.
The bar chart below compares recent activity on a week-to-week basis over the last eight weeks.
- 7 bills were either introduced or saw pre-committee action (e.g., new sponsor added, subcommittee hearing scheduled, etc.).
- Republican trifectas: 2.
- Divided governments: 5.
- 6 bills advanced from committee.
- Democratic trifectas: 6.
- 15 bills passed one chamber.
- Democratic trifectas: 10.
- Republican trifectas: 1.
- Divided governments: 4.
- 11 bills passed both chambers.
- Democratic trifectas: 3.
- Republican trifectas: 1.
- NH SB405: Relative to fines and penalties for election law violations.
- Divided governments: 7.
- LA HB1065: Provides relative to notice of changes to polling places
- LA HB1082: Provides for election procedures during a state of emergency
- LA HB35: Provides for a supplemental annual canvass of registered voters
- LA HB359: Provides relative to federal election guidance and funding
- LA SB144: Provides relative to hand delivery of absentee by mail ballots.
- LA SB283: Provides relative to submission of redistricting plans to the secretary of state.
- LA SB350: Provides relative to elections.
- 11 bills were enacted.
- Democratic trifectas: 1.
- DC B24-0839: Advisory Neighborhood Commission Redistricting Deadline Extension Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2022.
- Republican trifectas: 6.
- AZ SB1013: Secretary of state; federal form.
- AZ SB1170: G&F; tags; permits; voter registration.
- AZ SB1260: Registrations; early voting; move notice.
- AZ SB1362: Early ballot on-site tabulation.
- TN HB2331: AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, relative to voting machines.
- TN SB2558: AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, relative to voting machines.
- Divided governments: 4.
- LA HB646: Makes revisions to the Louisiana Election Code,
- LA SB258: Provides relative to voting and the holding of elections impaired as the result of a declared emergency or disaster.
- LA SR151: Creates a task force to study ways to increase early voting in Louisiana with an emphasis on rural communities.
- VT H0727: An act relating to the exploration, formation, and organization of union school districts and unified union school districts.
- Democratic trifectas: 1.
The map below visualizes the concentration of this recent activity across the nation. A darker shade of yellow indicates a higher number of relevant bills that have been acted upon in the last week. A lighter shade of yellow indicates a lower number of bills that have been acted upon in the last week.
The big picture
To date, we have tracked 2,505 election-related bills. This represents a marginal decrease as compared to last week’s 2,541 bills (owing to the removal of some bills that, upon closer review, turned out to be irrelevant to our purposes). These bills were either introduced this year or crossed over from last year’s legislative sessions.
Legislative status
The pie charts below visualize the legislative status of the bills we are tracking. The following status indicators are used:
- Introduced: The bill has been pre-filed, introduced, or referred to committee but has not otherwise been acted upon.
- Advanced from committee: The bill has received a favorable vote in committee. It has either advanced to another committee or to the floor for a vote.
- Passed one chamber: The bill has been approved by one legislative chamber.
- Conference committee: Differing versions of the bill have been approved by their respective chambers and a conference committee has been appointed to reconcile the differences.
- Passed both chambers: The bill has cleared both chambers of the legislature.
- Enacted: The bill has been enacted into law, by gubernatorial action or inaction or veto override.
- Vetoed: The bill has been vetoed.
- Dead: The bill has been defeated in committee or by floor vote.
The pie charts below visualize the legislative status of bills in Democratic and Republican trifectas, respectively.
Concentration of activity
The map below visualizes the concentration of legislative activity across the nation. A darker shade of yellow indicates a higher number of relevant bills that have been introduced. A lighter shade of yellow indicates a lower number of relevant bills.
Partisan affiliation of sponsor(s)
The pie chart below visualizes the partisan affiliation of bill sponsors.
The bar chart below visualizes the correlation between the partisan affiliation of bill sponsors and trifecta status (e.g., how many Democratic-sponsored bills were introduced in Democratic trifectas vs. Republican trifectas).
