Welcome to the Thursday, December 12, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- There were 63.6% more enacted election-related bills in 2024 compared to 2022
- The number of states with record gubernatorial winning streaks increased in 2024
- This week’s podcast episode looks at uncontested elections in ‘24
There were 63.6% more enacted election-related bills in 2024 compared to 2022
On Tuesday, we took an early look at some of the election-related bills that state lawmakers have pre-filed for the 2025 legislative session. Today, let’s dive into election-related legislative activity that we saw in 2024 and explore some of the data in Ballotpedia’s State of Election Administration Legislation 2024 Year-End Report.
The report covers all election-related legislative activity in the 46 states that held legislative sessions between Jan. 1 and Nov. 22, 2024, unless otherwise stated. Click here to read the full report.
- Ballotpedia tracked 3,820 election-related bills in 2024.
- That is a 2.7% increase compared to 2023 and a 52.5% increase compared to 2022.
- For the third year in a row, states with Democratic trifectas considered more bills than states with Republican trifectas or divided governments, while states with Republican trifectas adopted more new laws. States adopted 396 new election laws, fewer laws than in 2023 but more than in 2022.
- The most active state was Tennessee, which adopted 36 new laws. In second place was Louisiana, which adopted 35 new laws. Both states had Republican trifectas. The most active states with Democratic trifectas were Rhode Island and California, which adopted 20 and 19 new laws, respectively. Virginia was the most active state with a divided government, adopting 25 new laws.
Ballotpedia identified nine noteworthy policy topics within the report. These were areas that drew significant attention from lawmakers across the country. Click on the link associated with each topic to learn more about relevant legislative activity.
- Ranked-choice voting (RCV): Six states — Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Oklahoma — passed laws banning the use of RCV, more than in any other year.
- Voter list maintenance: Ten states adopted 18 new laws related to maintaining accurate voter registration rolls, also known as voter list maintenance.
- Noncitizen voting: Ten states adopted laws related to the eligibility of noncitizens to vote.
- Voter registration: Two states with Republican trifectas — Louisiana and New Hampshire — passed laws requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Louisiana and Tennessee also adopted new laws related to voter registration drives or third-party assistance for voter registration applications.
- Criminal penalties for threatening election officials or workers: Nine states adopted laws creating new penalties for intimidating, interfering, or threatening election officials or workers.
- Absentee/mail-in ballot administration: Three states with Republican trifectas — Idaho, Mississippi, and Louisiana — added new definitions of who may return another voter’s ballot. In states with Democratic trifectas, only Connecticut adopted a significant change to absentee/mail-in ballot laws.
- Primary elections: One state, Louisiana, adopted legislation to make some state primaries more closed, while another state, Rhode Island, moved the other direction and passed legislation to make primaries more open to unaffiliated voters.
- Hand counting and voting equipment: Several states considered legislation related to voting equipment, including bills in 10 states that would permit or require the elimination of tabulating equipment and adopt the hand-counting of ballots.
- Voting rights for individuals convicted of a felony or while incarcerated: Two states with Republican trifectas — Oklahoma and Nebraska — passed laws that more quickly return voting rights to certain individuals convicted of a felony. Kentucky and Mississippi adopted laws that allow eligible voters who are incarcerated to request an absentee/mail-in ballot. Colorado and Virginia also made changes to voting rules for incarcerated eligible voters.
Generally, Republicans led efforts to ban ranked-choice voting (RCV) and passed laws requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration, while Democrats adopted new cybersecurity standards for voting equipment and passed laws creating new definitions for election dis- and misinformation. States of all trifecta statuses considered and adopted laws related to absentee/mail-in voting process, voter registration list maintenance, protections for election workers, and voting by convicted felons or incarcerated individuals.
Ballotpedia publishes monthly Election Administration Legislation Roundups in addition to our Mid-Year and Year-End reports. Click here to see past reports.
The number of states with record gubernatorial winning streaks increased in 2024
The two states with the longest ongoing gubernatorial winning streaks are South Dakota and Utah, where Republicans have won 12 consecutive elections. Utah’s streak is the longest in state history, while South Dakota’s longest-running Republican streak was 13 consecutive elections from 1900 to 1924. The states with the longest ongoing streaks for Democrats are Oregon and Washington, where Democrats have won 11 consecutive elections. These are the longest Democratic streaks in both states’ history.
Overall, 18 states currently have record gubernatorial winning streaks, meaning that the current governor’s party has won more consecutive elections than ever before in state history. There are 13 states with record Republican streaks and five with record Democratic streaks. As a result of the 2024 elections, there is one more record streak than there was after the 2023 general elections when 17 states had ongoing record-long streaks.
In Missouri, Republicans reached their previous record of winning three consecutive elections when Governor-elect Mike Kehoe (R) defeated Crystal Quade (D) in the Nov. 5 general election. This is the third time in state history that Republicans have had a winning streak of three elections. The first two streaks lasted from 1920 to 1928 and from 1980 to 1988.
There were 11 gubernatorial elections in 2024. This was the first even-year election since 2000 in which no governorships changed partisan control. Five states with ongoing record streaks — Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Utah, and Washington — held elections in 2024.
In states that currently have record streaks, the average ongoing streak remained unchanged from 2023 at 6.6 elections. The average ongoing record Republican streak decreased from 6.2 to 6.1 between 2023 and 2024, while the average ongoing Democratic streak increased from 7.6 to 8.
The longest gubernatorial winning streak in U.S. history is 52 elections for Georgia Democrats between 1871 and 1998. The longest gubernatorial winning streak for Republicans is 49 elections in Vermont between 1867 and 1960. The average record streak for Democrats in 2024 is 12.1, up from 12 in 2023, and the average streak for Republicans is 9, unchanged from 2023.
This week, On the Ballot looks at uncontested elections in ‘24
Sixty-five percent of more than 40,000 elections across the country were uncontested on Nov. 5. Last week, we took a look at those elections, and in today’s new episode of On The Ballot, Ballotpedia’s Doug Kronaizl joins host and Editor-in-Chief Geoff Pallay to discuss them.
Through November, Ballotpedia covered 76,780 elections in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories. Of those, 53,428 (70%) were uncontested and 23,352 (30%) were contested. The current rate of 70% uncontested elections is the highest at this point in the year since data collection began in 2018. The second highest rate was 65% in 2020. The lowest rate at this point was 50% in 2021.
Subscribe to On the Ballot on YouTube or your preferred podcast app, or click the link below to listen. Click here to see more analysis of uncontested elections in 2024.
If you want to learn more about why elections go uncontested, you can also check out this episode from back in May featuring Kronaizl and The Appleton Post-Crescent’s Sophia Voight.