The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, December 13, 2024

By

Ballotpedia staff

In this week’s Ballot Bulletin, we cover 25 bills acted on since our last edition. 

Year-end review of 2024 legislation

This week, in addition to our usual weekly update, we’re reviewing the election-related bill activity over the course of this year. State lawmakers introduced or acted on 3,835 election-related bills this year. See the breakdown below for more of this year’s legislative highlights.

Be sure to check out our 2024 year-end report, which provides in-depth analyses of the major trends in election-related legislation this year. Note that this report covers bill activity through November, and some figures may differ from the updated numbers below. For a deeper dive into all of the legislation we’ve followed since 2022, visit our Election Administration Legislation Tracker. 

Overview

  • Of the 3,835 total bills this year:
    • Democrats sponsored 1,744.
    • Republicans sponsored 1,561. 
    • Bipartisan bills accounted for 310.
    • Sponsors other than Democrats and Republicans sponsored 220.
  • In comparison, we tracked 3,720 bills in 2023 and 2,505 in 2022. 
  • More bills were introduced in states with Democratic trifectas (1,798) than in states with Republican trifectas (1,379) or divided governments (658).
  • Legislators in New York introduced 682 election-related bills this year, the most of any state. New Jersey lawmakers came in second with 334 bills, followed by Illinois with 293. 
  • The most common legislative topics this year were:
    • Election types and contest-specific procedures (1,512)
    • Election dates and deadlines (564)
    • Absentee/mail-in voting (555)
    • Voter registration and list maintenance (532)
    • Voters and voter qualifications (531)

Enacted bills

  • Three-hundred ninety-seven bills became law this year, compared to 716 in 2023 and 242 in 2022. 
  • Of the 397 bills approved this year:
    • Republicans sponsored 190. 
    • Democrats sponsored 105.
    • Bipartisan sponsors accounted for 73.
    • Other sponsors accounted for 29.
  • Republican-sponsored legislation was more than twice as likely to become law (12.2%) as Democratic legislation (5.9%), similar to the rate of passage in the last two years.
  • Lawmakers in states with Republican trifectas approved the most legislation this year, enacting 223 bills, compared to 121 in states with Democratic trifectas and 53 in states with divided governments. States with Republican trifectas enacted election legislation at a higher rate (16.2% of all introduced bills, 222 bills) than states with Democratic trifectas (6.6%, 118).
  • Louisiana had the most bills enacted this year with 36, followed by Tennessee with 35 and Georgia with 33.
  • Of the bills approved this year, the most common topics were:
    • Election types and contest-specific procedures (197)
    • Election dates and deadlines (83)
    • Ballot access (71)
    • Offices (57)
    • Audits and oversight (45)

Vetoes and veto overrides

  • Governors vetoed 38 bills in 2024, less than last year but more than in 2022. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed the most election-related bills (13), and governors of states with a divided government also took the second and third spots in terms of vetoes.
  • Lawmakers in Kentucky overrode three gubernatorial vetoes, and the North Carolina Legislature overrode one. 

Recent legislative highlights

  • One bill was approved last week. Three hundred ninety-seven bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 642 in 2023 and 235 in 2022. 
  • State legislatures acted on 25 bills this week, 10 more than last week. 
  • The top bill topics this week were:
    • Election types and contest-specific procedures (15)
    • Absentee/mail-in voting (2)
    • Election dates and deadlines (2)
    • 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. 11, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (R) asked lawmakers to pass legislation in the coming 2025 session to remove noncitizens from the state’s voter registration list. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R) sued the federal government on Dec. 3 to gain access to the citizenship records of approximately 2,000 Iowa voters, saying it was important “to know who the noncitizens are on the voter rolls to make sure there is no illegal voting.” 
  • On Dec. 6, the Washington State Republican Party sued officials in Clark County over a recount in the Senate District 18 race between Brad Benton (R) and Adrian Cortes (D). The lawsuit alleges that county officials failed to update the residency status of voters who had moved out of the district. 
  • On Dec. 6, the North Carolina Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to halt the state’s board of elections from invalidating ballots in a race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin (R) protested over 60,000 ballots cast by some overseas and military voters and voters who did not provide certain information on their voter registration forms.

Recent activity

Enacted bills

One election-related bill was approved over the past week. Three bills were enacted in 2023, and two were enacted in 2022 during the same week. To see all enacted bills, click here. 

Massachusetts (Democratic trifecta)

  • MA S440
    • Permits an elected official of Manchester-by-the-Sea to be recalled through an initiative process. The bill outlines the recall process, vacancy procedures, ballot design for the recall question, and prohibitions against the recalled official.

Bills that passed both chambers

No bills have passed both chambers since our last edition. 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 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 25 bills with activity over the previous week, 19 were in states with Democratic trifectas, five were in states 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 397 bills so far this year, compared to 642 bills in 2023 and 235 in 2022. The chart below shows the number of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.

One hundred twenty-one of the election-related bills passed this year (30.5%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 223 (56.2%) 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, 1,798 (46.9%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,379 (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.