In this week’s Ballot Bulletin, we cover six bills acted on since our last edition. Four of these bills were in states with Democratic trifectas.
Legislative highlights
- No bills were approved last week. Three hundred eighty-six bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 633 in 2023 and 231 in 2022.
- State legislatures acted on six bills this week, two more than last week.
- The top bill topics this week were:
- Election types and contest-specific procedures (6)
- Voter registration and list maintenance (4)
- Election funding (2)
In the news
Here’s a rundown of recent news stories and developments from across the country on election administration.
- On Oct. 23, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously denied the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) appeal to reinstate new election rules the Georgia State Election Board voted to implement earlier this year. A Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled last week that the board’s actions were “unsupported by Georgia’s Election Code and are in fact contrary to the Election Code.”
- On Oct. 23, a Wisconsin circuit court judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) did not adequately maintain the state’s voter registration lists. A Marinette County resident filed the lawsuit on Oct. 3, in which he said the WEC violated state law by storing active and inactive voters’ records in the same database.
- On Oct. 22, a federal judge in Michigan dismissed an RNC lawsuit in which plaintiffs alleged the state did not “maintain clean and accurate voter registration records.” Judge Jane Beckering said the lawsuit did not provide sufficient evidence and lacked legal standing.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s (D) administration in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on Oct. 22. Paxton alleged that the administration has not provided the information necessary to verify the citizenship of some Texas voters.
- On Oct. 21, a North Carolina Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the registration of some overseas voters. Judge John Smith said there was no “instance where the harm that plaintiffs seek to prevent has ever ‘fraudulently’ occurred.”
Recent activity
Enacted bills
No election-related bills have been approved since our last edition, compared to three bills in 2023 and no bills in 2022 during the same week. Click individual bills below to see their full summaries. To see all enacted bills, click here.
Bills that passed both chambers
No bills have passed both chambers since our last edition. Click individual bills below to see their full summaries. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
Vetoed bills
There have been no gubernatorial vetoes since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023, and none were vetoed in 2022. Governors have vetoed 37 bills so far this year, compared to 37 at this point in 2023 and 17 at this point in 2022. Click individual bills below to see their full summaries. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
Recent activity by state
Of the six bills with activity over the previous week, four were in states with Democratic trifectas, one was in a state with a Republican trifecta, and one was in a state with divided governments.
The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.
All legislation
Enacted bills
States have enacted 386 bills so far this year, compared to 633 bills in 2023 and 231 in 2022. The chart below shows the number of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.
One hundred twelve of the election-related bills passed this year (29%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 222 (57.5%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 52 (13.5%) are in states with a divided government. The chart below shows enacted election-related bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
All bills
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,768 (46.7%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,370 (36.2%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 645 (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 chart below shows election-related bills introduced by partisan sponsorship and trifecta status this year.
