Welcome to The Ballot Bulletin, where we track developments in election policy at the federal, state, and local levels. In this month’s issue:
- New Jersey enacts seven election administration bills
- Delaware enacts three election administration bills
- Legislation update: Legislation activity in July 2022
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New Jersey enacts seven election administration bills
On July 28, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed into law seven separate bills making modifications to New Jersey’s election administration laws.
- A1969: Allows minors between the ages of 16 and 18 to serve as election workers from 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Election Day.
- Final state Senate vote (June 29): 37-0.
- Final state House vote (June 16): 73-3 (45 Democrats and 28 Republicans in favor, three Republicans opposed).
- A3817: Requires ballot privacy sleeves and privacy equipment at each polling place; sets the mail-in ballot curing deadline nine days after Election Day; allows voters to request mail-in ballots using the existing online voter registration system; allows voters to change their party affiliation using the existing online voter registration system; requires the creation of an online form that voters can use to update their names and residences.
- Final state Senate vote (June 29): 22-17 (22 Democrats in favor, one Democrat and 16 Republicans opposed).
- Final state House vote (June 29): 58-19 (46 Democrats and 12 Republicans in favor, 19 Republicans opposed).
- A3819: Requires the removal of a voter’s name from the permanent vote-by-mail list if the voter does not vote by mail for four consecutive elections, starting with the 2020 election cycle.
- Final state Senate vote (June 29): 40-0.
- Final state House vote (June 29): 78-0.
- A3820: Prohibits an unaffiliated voter from receiving a mail-in ballot for a primary election; requires election officials to provide unaffiliated voters with political party affiliation forms and information about voting in partisan primaries.
- Final state Senate vote (June 29, 2022): 40-0.
- Final state House vote (June 16, 2022): 75-2 (46 Democrats and 29 Republicans in favor, two Republicans opposed).
- A3822: Provides that mail-in ballots will be sent to voters starting on the 45th day before an election; requires that all candidate petitions addressed to state or local election officials be filed by 4:00 p.m. on the 71st day preceding a primary election; allows election officials to begin processing mail-in ballots no earlier than five days before an election.
- Final state Senate vote (June 29): 23-15 (23 Democrats in favor, one Democrat and 14 Republicans opposed).
- Final state House vote (June 29): 78-0.
- A3823: Requires municipal officers who maintain death records to file biweekly reports with voter registration officials in the two months immediately preceding a primary or general election; requires registration officials to remove the names of deceased voters from the voter rolls within 10 days of receiving the biweekly report; exempts compensation received by election workers from gross income taxation.
- Final state Senate vote (June 29): 40-0.
- Final state House vote (June 16): 78-0.
- A3929: Amends definitions related to military and overseas voting “to more closely mirror the selection categories voters must choose from on the Federal Postcard Application (FPCA), which determine the types of elections – local, state, federal, or all – in which the U.S. citizen living outside of the country is permitted to participate.”
- Final state Senate vote (June 29): 24-15 (24 Democrats in favor, 15 Republicans opposed).
- Final state House vote (June 29): 47-30 (46 Democrats and one Republican in favor, 30 Republicans opposed).
Delaware enacts three election administration bills
On July 22, Gov. John Carney (D) signed into law three separate bills making modifications to Delaware’s election administration laws.
- HB25: Establishes same-day voter registration for any presidential primary, primary, special, or general election. To register at a polling place, a voter must present a copy of a current and valid government-issued photo ID or a document, dated within the last 60 days, displaying the voter’s name and address (e.g., utility bill, bank statement, etc.).
- Final state Senate vote (June 22): 14-7 (14 Democrats in favor, seven Republicans opposed).
- Final state House vote (June 7): 24-13 (23 Democrats and one Republican in favor, one Democrat and 12 Republicans opposed).
- HB183: Requires a candidate for elective office to provide proof of residency to the state election commissioner. Proof of residency must show that the candidate lives in the district or area that the candidate seeks to represent.
- Final state Senate vote (June 30): 21-0.
- Final state House vote (July 1): 40-0.
- SB320: Establishes no-excuse absentee/mail-in voting in any non-presidential primary election, general election, or special election to fill a vacancy in a statewide office or the General Assembly.
- Final state Senate vote (June 16): 13-8 (13 Democrats in favor, one Democrat and seven Republicans opposed).
- Final state House vote (June 29): 25-12 (24 Democrats and one Republican in favor, 12 Republicans opposed).
Legislation update: Legislation activity in July 2022
In July, legislatures in 10 states and the District of Columbia took action on 50 election bills.
The chart below identifies the 10 most common policy areas implicated by the bills that state lawmakers acted on in July. The number listed on the blue portion of each bar indicates the number of Democratic-sponsored bills dealing with the subject in question. The number listed on the red portion of the bar indicates the number of Republican-sponsored bills. The purple and gray portions of the bar indicate the number of bipartisan-sponsored bills and bills with unspecified sponsorship, respectively. Note that the total number of bills listed will not equal the total number of enacted bills because some bills deal with multiple subjects.
Democrats sponsored 24 of the 50 bills acted on in July (48%). Republicans sponsored 11 (22%). Bipartisan groups sponsored nine (18%). For the remaining six (12%), partisan sponsorship was not specified.
This information comes from Ballotpedia’s Election Administration Legislation Tracker, which went live on June 29. This free and accessible online resource allows you to find easy-to-digest bill tags and summaries—written and curated by our election administration experts! We update our database and bill-tracking daily. Using our powerful interactive search function, you can zero in on more 2,500 bills (and counting) covering these topics:
- Absentee/mail-in voting and early voting policies
- Ballot access requirements for candidates, parties, and ballot initiatives
- Election dates and deadlines
- Election oversight protocols
- In-person voting procedures
- Post-election procedures (including counting, canvassing, and auditing policies)
- Voter ID
- Voter registration and eligibility
To make your search results more precise, we first place bills into one of 22 parent categories. We then apply to each bill one or more of the 88 tags we’ve developed.
If you don’t want to immerse yourself in the world of election legislation quite that often, we have a free, weekly digest that goes straight to your inbox and keeps you caught up on the week’s developments.