The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, December 6, 2024

By

Ballotpedia staff

In this week’s Ballot Bulletin, we cover 15 bills acted on since our last edition. 

Legislative highlights

  • State legislators are beginning to pre-file legislation ahead of the 2025 legislative session. Here’s an early look at where bills are being filed and what topics they cover:
    • Legislators in Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming have pre-filed bills. 
    • Texas legislators have pre-filed the largest number of bills for 2025. The Texas Legislature only meets in odd-numbered years.
    • All of the states where pre-filing is currently underway have Republican trifectas except Washington and Nevada. 
    • Democrats have sponsored approximately 38% of pre-filed bills, and Republicans have sponsored roughly 42%. 
    • The most common bill topics are ballot access, voters and voter qualifications, Election Day voting, election officials and workers, election types and contest-specific procedures, and voter registration and list maintenance.
    • Click here to see the 2025 bills we’re currently tracking. 
  • Of the 2024 bills active over the past week, two bills passed both chambers and are awaiting gubernatorial approval. No bills were approved last week. Three hundred ninety-six bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 639 in 2023 and 233 in 2022. 
  • State legislatures acted on 15 bills this week, five fewer more than last week. 
  • The top bill topics this week were:
  1. Ballot access (7)
  2. Election types and contest-specific procedures (6)
  3. Ballots and voting materials (3)
  4. Election Day voting (3)
  5. Absentee/mail-in voting (2)
  6. Election officials and workers (2)
  7. Enforcement and election fraud (2)
  8. Voters and voter qualifications (2)

In the news

Here’s a rundown of recent news stories and developments from across the country on election administration. 

  • On Dec. 5, a U.S. district court judge dismissed a lawsuit against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D), alleging Fontes failed to accurately maintain state voter rolls and violated the National Voter Registration Act (NRVA). U.S. District Court Judge Dominic Lanza said, “Even assuming the secretary has failed to perform the sort of voter-list maintenance required by the NVRA, that lack of maintenance would not inexorably result in Plaintiffs’ votes being diluted.”
  • On Dec. 5, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said the state will appeal the dismissal of a lawsuit against the City of Huntington Beach regarding a local measure requiring voters to present ID at the polls. A superior court judge in California dismissed the state’s lawsuit on Nov. 15.
  • On Dec. 2, the North Carolina Senate voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) Nov. 27 veto of S382, a bill that includes provisions placing the State Board of Elections under the administrative control of the Department of the State Auditor rather than an independent agency under the Office of the Governor. The House will take up a vote to override on Dec. 10. If the House votes to override, then the bill will become law. If the vote fails, Cooper’s veto will be sustained. 
  • On Nov. 29,  Aaron Paul (R), a candidate for Minnesota House District 54A, sued Scott County, alleging that election officials had misplaced approximately 20 ballots and asking the court to prevent his opponent, Rep. Brad Tabke (D), from being seated. The final results of the race will decide partisan control of the state House, which is tied 67-67 as a result of the Nov. 5 election. 

Recent activity

Enacted bills

No election-related bills were approved over the past week. No bills were enacted in 2023 or in 2022 during the same week. To see all enacted bills, click here. 

Bills that passed both chambers

Two bills have passed both chambers since our last edition. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.

Massachusetts (Democratic trifecta)

  • MA H4742
    • Prohibits a member of the select board, the regional school committee, or the finance committee in the town of Newbury, during the term in which the member was elected or appointed, from being eligible for election or appointment to hold any other town office. 
    • This prohibition does not apply to members of the Finance Committee who may be appointed to serve on the Capital Planning Committee but who are ineligible either by election or appointment to hold any other town office. 

New York (Democratic trifecta)

  • NY S01160
    • Permits a school district to use any building used or leased by the district as a polling place.

Vetoed bills

There has been one gubernatorial veto since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023, and none were vetoed in 2022. Governors have vetoed 38 bills so far this year, compared to 39 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 15 bills with activity over the previous week, 14 were in states with Democratic trifectas, one was in a state with a Republican trifecta, and one was in a state 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

States have enacted 396 bills so far this year, compared to 639 bills in 2023 and 233 in 2022. The chart below shows the number of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.

One hundred twenty of the election-related bills passed this year (30.3%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 223 (56.3%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 53 (13.4%) 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, 1,788 (46.8%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,374 (36%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 658 (17.2%) 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.