The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, May 24, 2024

By

Ballotpedia staff

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed AL HB100 this week, which establishes penalties for crimes against election officials. 

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 and recent legislative activity.

We want to hear from you! Reply to this email to let us know what you like about The Ballot Bulletin and how we can improve our coverage of election-related legislation. 

Legislative highlights

  • Twelve bills have been approved since our last edition. Two hundred sixty-four bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 355 in 2023 and 133 in 2022. 
  • State legislatures acted on 197 bills this week, one more than last week. 
  • Democrats sponsored 111 (56.3%) of the bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored 75 (38.1%) bills. Ten (5.1%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship. One (0.5%) bill had sponsors other than Democrats or Republicans, such as nonpartisan lawmakers or committee sponsorship. 
  • Eighty-one (41.1%) of the bills active over the past week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 109 (55.3%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and seven (3.6%) are in states with a divided government. 
  • One hundred twenty-nine bills passed one or both chambers or were enacted this week. Twenty-two were in Democratic trifectas, and of those, Democrats sponsored 19. Forty-three were in Republican trifectas, and of those, Republicans sponsored 31.
  • The top bill topics this week were:
  1. Election types and contest-specific procedures (68)
  2. Voter registration and list maintenance (37)
  3. Absentee/mail-in voting (36)
  4. Ballot verification (27)
  5. Audits and oversight (25)

Recent activity

Enacted bills

States approved 12 election-related bills since our last edition, compared to 41 in 2023 and 16 in 2022 during the same week. To see all enacted bills, click here. 

Alabama (Republican trifecta)

  • AL HB180: Mobile County, election workers, increasing the compensation for election workers and authorizing the appointment of computer technical assistants and providing for compensation of computer technical assistants
  • AL HB100: Establishing penalties for crimes against election officials
  • AL SB310: City of Jacksonville, Board of Education, election date revised

Connecticut (Democratic trifecta)

  • CT HB05498: An Act Concerning Election Security And Transparency, The Counting Of Absentee Ballots, Absentee Voting For Certain Patients Of Nursing Homes, Security Of Certain Election Workers, State Elections Enforcement Commission Complaints, Ballots Made Available In Languages Other Than English And Various Other Revisions Related To Election Administration.

Louisiana (Republican trifecta)

  • LA HB576: Provides relative to justices of the peace in Plaquemines Parish

New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)

  • NH HB1302: Relative to elected conservation commissions in towns.

Oklahoma (Republican trifecta)

  • OK HB3511: Elections; special elections; modifying timelines for certain elections; effective date.
  • OK HR1047: Resolution advocating for amending the Oklahoma Constitution to require proof of citizenship for voter registration.

South Carolina (Republican trifecta)

  • SC S1292: Edgefield County School District Board of Trustees
  • SC S1099: Laurens County voting precincts
  • SC S1126: Constitutional amendment

Tennessee (Republican trifecta)

  • TN HB2998: AN ACT to amend Chapter 553 of the Acts of 1903; as amended by Chapter 395 of the Acts of 1905; Chapter 405 of the Acts of 1907; Chapter 468 of the Private Acts of 1917; Chapter 200 of the Private Acts of 1919; Chapter 105 of the Private Acts of 1931; Chapter 460 of the Private Acts of 1931; Chapter 700 of the Private Acts of 1931; Chapter 334 of the Private Acts of 1943; Chapter 252 of the Private Acts of 1951; Chapter 513 of the Private Acts of 1951; Chapter 376 of the Private Acts of 1955; Ch

Bills that passed both chambers

Ten 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.

Colorado (Democratic trifecta)

  • CO SB072: Voting for Confined Eligible Electors

Louisiana (Republican trifecta)

  • LA HB319: Provides relative to notice of the reason for changes to polling places (EN +$32,000 GF EX See Note)
  • LA SB101: Provides relative to ranked-choice voting and instant runoff voting. (gov sig) (EN NO IMPACT See Note)
  • LA SB226: Provides relative to absentee by mail ballots. (8/1/24)
  • LA HB188: Requires local elected school board members to meet certain criteria prior to qualifying
  • LA HB677: Makes revisions to the system of laws providing for elections (EN NO IMPACT See Note)
  • LA HB476: Provides for the delivery of absentee ballots by a person other than the voter

Massachusetts (Democratic trifecta)

  • MA H4224: Relative to the treasurer-collector of the town of Sherborn

Missouri (Republican trifecta)

  • MO SJR78: Modifies provisions relating to elections

West Virginia (Republican trifecta)

  • WV SB1014: Clarifying procedure for political party nomination of presidential electors

Vetoed bills

Governors vetoed five bills since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023, and none were vetoed in 2022. Governors have vetoed 29 bills so far this year, compared to nine at this point in both 2023 and 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.

Virginia (divided government)

  • VA HB416: Virginia Beach, City of; amending charter, transition of city council.
  • VA HB904: Voter registration; list maintenance activities, cancellation procedures, required record matches.
  • VA SB196: Voter registration; list maintenance data standards, challenges to a voter’s registration.
  • VA SB300: Voter registration; list maintenance activities, cancellation procedures, required record matches.
  • VA SB188: Election of certain governing bodies; conversion to single-member districts.

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 197 bills with activity this week, 81 (41.1%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 109 (55.3%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and seven (3.6%) 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 264 bills so far this year, compared to 355 bills in 2023 and 133 in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.

Forty-three of the election-related bills passed this year (16.3%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 175 (66.3%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 46 (17.4%) 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 3,551 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, 1,047 (29%) are Democrat-sponsored bills in Democratic trifecta states. Republicans sponsored 776 (22%) 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, 1,627 (45.8%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,319 (37.1%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 607 (17.1%) 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.