States approved 10 election-related bills since our last edition, compared to 19 in 2023 and 13 in 2022 during the same period.
Welcome to The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration. Every Friday, we deliver the latest updates on election policy around the country, including nationwide trends, legislative activity, and updates on notable lawsuits and policy changes.
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Legislative highlights
- Ten bills have been approved since our last edition. Thirty-four bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 54 in 2023 and 51 in 2022.
- State legislatures acted on 433 bills, 26 more than last week.
- Democrats sponsored 174 (40.2%) of the bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored 191 (44.1%) bills. Forty (9.2%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship. Twenty-eight (6.5%) bills had sponsors other than Democrats or Republicans, such as nonpartisan lawmakers or committee sponsorship.
- One hundred forty-nine (34.4%) bills are in states with Democratic trifectas, 206 (47.6%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 78 (18%) are in states with a divided government.
- One hundred thirty-nine bills passed one or both chambers or were enacted this week. Forty-eight were in Democratic trifectas, and of those, Democrats sponsored 38. Ninety-seven were in Republican trifectas, and of those, Republicans sponsored 63.
- The top bill topics this week were:
- Election types and contest-specific procedures (117)
- Voter registration and list maintenance (46)
- Election dates and deadlines (40)
- Ballot access (37)
- Absentee/mail-in voting (29)
- Election officials and workers (29)
Recent activity
Enacted bills
States approved 10 election-related bills since our last edition, compared to 19 in 2023 and 13 in 2022 during the same period. To see all enacted bills, click here.
Indiana (Republican trifecta)
New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)
- NH HB154: Relative to electronic ballot counting devices.
New Mexico (Democratic trifecta)
- NM HB182: Election Changes
South Carolina (Republican trifecta)
- SC H4876: Dorchester County School Board District 4, candidate filing
- SC S0801: Oconee County Voting Precincts
South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
- SD HB1132: Revise certain provisions pertaining to municipal government.
- SD SB18: Allow the secretary of state to share information from the statewide voter registration file.
Tennessee (Republican trifecta)
- TN SB1967: AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, Chapter 6, relative to absentee voting.
West Virginia (Republican trifecta)
- WV HJR21: Amending the Constitution to prohibit persons not United States citizens from voting in any election held within this state
Bills that passed both chambers
Sixty-four bills have passed both chambers since our last edition and await gubernatorial action. To see all bills that have currently passed both chambers, click here.
Vetoed bills
One bill was vetoed since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023, and five were vetoed in 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
Virginia (divided government)
- VA SB606: Voter registration; list maintenance, data sharing.
Recent activity by topic and sponsorship
The chart below shows the topics and partisan sponsorship of the bills with legislative activity since our last edition. Click here to see a full list of bill categories and their definitions.
* Note: Contest-specific procedures refer to primary systems, municipal election procedures, recall elections, special election procedures, and other systems unique to a particular election type.
Recent activity by state and trifecta status
Of the 433 bills with activity this week, 149 (34.4%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 206 (47.6%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 78 (18%) are in states with a divided government.
The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.
All legislation
Enacted bills by sponsorship and trifecta status
States have enacted 34 bills so far this year, compared to 54 bills in 2023 and 51 bills in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Twelve of the election-related bills passed this year (35.3%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 19 (55.9%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and three (8.8%) are in states with a divided government. The table below shows the number of enacted election-related bills introduced by trifecta status this year compared to 2023 and 2022.
All bills by topic and sponsorship
The chart below displays the topic and sponsorship of a sample of the 3,320 total bills we’ve followed this year. Note that the sums of the numbers listed do not equal the total number of bills because some bills deal with multiple topics.
All bills by sponsorship and trifecta status
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 990 (29.8%) are Democrat-sponsored bills in Democratic trifecta states. Republicans sponsored 713 (21.5%) bills in states with Republican trifectas.
The chart below shows the percentage of all election-related bills by sponsorship and trifecta status.
All bills by state and trifecta status
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,520 (45.8%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,210 (36.4%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 590 (17.8%) are in states with divided governments.
Of all active bills in 2023, 42% were in states with Democratic trifectas, 43.8% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 14.2% were in states with divided governments. In 2022, 37.8% of bills were in states with Democratic trifectas, 30.4% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 31.8% were in states with divided governments.
The map below shows the number of election-related bills introduced by state and trifecta status this year.
