Welcome to the Thursday, June 6, Brew.
By: Mercedes Yanora
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Forty states have enacted 284 election-related laws this year, including 84 in the first three weeks of May
- U.S. Supreme Court to enter its peak opinion season
- Learn about our newest tool – The Administrative State Legislation Tracker – on the latest episode of On the Ballot
Forty states have enacted 284 election-related laws this year, including 84 in the first three weeks of May
Last week we published our State of Election Administration Legislation May 2024 Roundup. This monthly report looks at election-related activity from all active state legislatures, diving into the busiest states and the most consequential issues with an eye toward how policymakers are changing election administration in their states. The report includes figures up to May 24, unless otherwise stated.
Forty states have enacted 284 new laws, including 84 in the first three weeks of May. Some key takeaways from the report:
- There has been a focus on local elections, with 18% of all new laws changing election procedures in specific jurisdictions only.
- Maryland adopted a law creating a portal for reporting what the state defines as election misinformation and disinformation.
- In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves (R) vetoed a bill that would have made the office of county election commissioner nonpartisan. It was the only bill vetoed in May in a state where one party has trifecta control.
- Three Republican trifectas — Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — banned ranked-choice voting (RCV), bringing the total number of states with RCV prohibitions to nine. With these new laws, more states have banned RCV in 2024 than in any other year.
Overview
State legislatures have considered more than 3,500 election-related bills and adopted 284 new election laws in 2024. As of May 24, 28 states have adjourned for the year, barring any future special sessions. Seventeen states are still in session and one state is in recess. Four states do not hold even-year legislative sessions.
Enacted legislation and trifecta activity
At this time last year, 41 states had approved 356 new election administration laws. In 2022, 34 states had adopted 130 election bills.
States with Republican trifectas continue to adopt legislation at a higher rate than Democratic trifectas and states with divided governments. Eighteen states with Republican trifectas have enacted 176 bills. Thirteen states with Democratic trifectas have approved 58 bills. Six states with divided governments have adopted 50 new laws.
During the same period in 2023, Republican trifecta states approved 257 bills, while Democratic trifecta states passed 54 and states with divided governments passed 45. In 2022, states with Republican trifectas passed 73 bills compared to 26 adopted bills in states with Democratic trifectas and 31 bills in states with divided governments.
Across all three years, states with Republican trifectas have adopted 91.7% more bills than states with Democratic trifectas and divided governments combined.
Of the 284 bills passed this year, 49 had Democratic sponsorship and 148 had Republican sponsorship. Fifty-eight bills had bipartisan sponsorship and legislators introduced the remaining 29 bills without partisan sponsorship.
Frequent topics of newly adopted laws are: municipal election procedures, elections in specific jurisdictions, vacancy procedures, offices up for election, ballot access for candidates, election dates, and administrative deadlines.
To learn more about our election-related legislation topic categories, see here.
Join us later in June for our Election Administration Legislation Mid-Year Report, to include full analysis from the first half of the year!
U.S. Supreme Court to enter its peak opinion season
The U.S. Supreme Court is entering its peak opinion season. The justices are set to release the bulk of their opinions this month and early next month before their summer recess.
According to SCOTUSblog, the court decided an average of 85 cases from 1995 to 2000, 78 from 2001 to 2010, and 72 from 2011 to 2020. The court agreed to hear 62 cases for its 2023-2024 term.
As of May 30, the court issued 29 opinions and dismissed one case, leaving 32 cases with opinions to be released this month or early next month. Between the 2007 and 2022 October Terms, the court released opinions in 1,188 cases, averaging 74.3 cases per year.
The court released its three most recent decisions on May 30 in Cantero v. Bank of America, National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo, and Thornell v. Jones. Other notable opinions this term include Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and Muldrow v. City of St. Louis.
In National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo, the court examined the First Amendment to determine whether it is lawful for a government regulatory body to threaten regulated entities with adverse regulatory actions if they do business with a controversial speaker. On May 30 in a unanimous opinion, the court voided and returned the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, holding that the National Rifle Association (NRA) plausibly alleged that Maria Vullo, former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, violated the First Amendment by coercing regulated entities to end their business relationships with the NRA to punish or suppress gun-promotion advocacy.
Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP concerned a challenge to the congressional redistricting plan that the South Carolina Legislature enacted after the 2020 census. On May 23 in a 6-3 opinion, the court partially reversed the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina’s ruling and partially returned the case for further proceedings. The court held that “the District Court’s finding that race predominated in the design of District I in the Enacted Plan was clearly erroneous. … Because the same findings of fact and reasoning that guided the court’s racial-gerrymandering analysis also guided the analysis of the Challengers’ independent vote-dilution claim, that conclusion also cannot stand. … In light of these two errors in the District Court’s analysis, a remand is appropriate.”
Muldrow v. City of St. Louis concerned an employment discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On April 17, the court unanimously voided and returned the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, holding that an employee challenging a job transfer under Title VII has to show that the transfer caused some harm in employment terms or conditions. However, that harm does not need to be significant.
Learn about our newest tool – The Administrative State Legislation Tracker – on the latest episode of On the Ballot
On today’s episode of On the Ballot, Ballotpedia’s weekly podcast, Editor in Chief Geoff Pallay interviews Policy Team Writer Annelise Reinwald about Ballotepedia’s newest tool: The Administrative State Legislation Tracker.
Pallay and Reinwald first establish exactly what the administrative state is: the phenomenon where executive branch administrative agencies exercise the power to create, adjudicate, and enforce their own rules. They note that the tracker is the first of its kind — tracking administrative state activity in all 50 states — and houses more than 500 bills. It is our second legislative tracker, with the first being the Election Administration Legislation Tracker. They also discuss best practices for using the tracker, what to expect in 2025, and emerging legislative trends.
Subscribe to our Checks and Balances newsletter for all things administrative state! And remember, you can learn more about the new tracker by subscribing to On the Ballot on YouTube or your preferred podcast app! New podcast episodes drop every Thursday morning.