Welcome to the Tuesday, March 5, Brew.
By: Briana Ryan
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Fifteen states and two territories to hold primaries today
- Today marks 22 years since California voters approved Proposition 43
- State legislatures acted on 255 election administration bills last week
Fifteen states and two territories to hold primaries today
One of the biggest voting days of the year is upon us. ICYMI, we’ve spent the past week previewing five of the biggest state primaries.
Super Tuesday is traditionally when the most states and territories hold a presidential preference primary or caucus. It’s also the beginning of the primary season for congressional, state executive, and legislative races. Here’s what you need to know about what’s happening today:
- Fifteen states and American Samoa are holding a presidential primary or caucus. That includes the nation’s two most populous states — California and Texas. Today is also the last day voters can submit mail-in ballots for Iowa’s Democratic primary, with preliminary results being announced later today. In total, 884 Republican delegates — 36% of all delegates — are at stake on Super Tuesday. On the Democratic side, 1,420 pledged delegates are at stake, 36% of all Democratic pledged delegates.
- Five states — Alabama, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, and Texas — are holding congressional primaries. The five states will have 106 contested primaries for a combined 117 House districts. There are 21 contested Democratic primaries, 42 contested Republican primaries, and 43 contested top-two primaries. Here is the breakdown by state:
- Alabama — eight
- Arkansas — one
- California — 43
- North Carolina — 13
- Texas — 41
- Alabama, North Carolina, and Texas are conducting primaries for state executive offices. The only gubernatorial primaries are in North Carolina, where voters will also decide primaries for nine other statewide offices.
- There are 218 state legislative primaries with two or more candidates in Arkansas, California, North Carolina, and Texas. California holds top-two primaries, while the other states hold partisan primaries. In a top-two primary, candidates of all parties are listed on the same ballot, and the top two finishers advance to the general election.
- Voters will decide one statewide ballot measure each in Alabama and California. In Alabama, California, and Vermont, voters will decide on local ballot measures.
Remember to bookmark the link below to stay on top of all the key election results tonight!
Today marks 22 years since California voters approved Proposition 43
On this date in 2002, voters approved California Proposition 43, a constitutional amendment that provided “a voter who casts a vote in an election in accordance with the laws of this state shall have that vote counted.” The vote was 3,391,678 (71.51%) to 1,351,179 (28.49%).
From 1910 through 2022, 1,293 statewide ballot propositions were on the California ballot. The decade with the most ballot propositions was the 1970s. The decade with the least was the 1950s. The single year with the most ballot propositions was 1914, with 48 propositions.
Ballotpedia’s Historic Ballot Measures project (HBM) will document nearly 200 years of direct democracy in the U.S. This ongoing research effort will provide an unparalleled resource for researchers, reporters, and the voting public on how ballot measures have evolved, the issues they’ve covered, and the role they have played in our civic life.
State legislatures acted on 255 election bills last week
Every Friday, we publish the Ballot Bulletin — our newsletter about election-related policy and legislation. The newsletter provides in-depth coverage of legislative trends and bill activity using data pulled from Ballotpedia’s Election Administration Legislation Tracker.
Here’s an update on election legislation as we move into the beginning of March
- No bills have been approved since our last edition. Eighteen bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 16 in 2023 and 30 in 2022.
- State legislatures acted on 255 bills this week, three fewer than last week.
- Democrats sponsored 70 (27.5%) of the bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored 130 (51%) bills. Twenty-nine (11.4%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship. Twenty-six (10.2%) bills had sponsors other than Democrats or Republicans, such as nonpartisan lawmakers or committee sponsorship.
- Forty-nine (19.2%) bills are in states with Democratic trifectas, 116 (45.5%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 90 (35.3%) are in states with a divided government.
- One hundred thirty-nine bills passed one or both chambers or were enacted this week. Fourteen were in Democratic trifectas, and of those, Democrats sponsored eight. Fifty-one were in Republican trifectas, and of those, Republicans sponsored 34.
- The top bill topics this week were:
- Election types and contest-specific procedures (59)
- Voter registration and list maintenance (26)
- Ballot access (22)
- Absentee/mail-in voting (17)
- Audits and oversight (16)
- Election dates and deadlines (16)
Two weeks ago, we released our inaugural monthly report on state legislative election administration bill activity—including ranked-choice voting—in the first six weeks of the year. We’ll publish another report later this month looking at bill activity in the latter half of February and part of March, so stay tuned for that!
Click below to subscribe to the Ballot Bulletin to stay up to date on the latest election legislation news.