The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, Jan. 3, 2025

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration. Every Friday, we deliver the latest updates on election policy around the country, including nationwide trends and recent legislative activity. 

In this week’s Ballot Bulletin, we cover 38 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.

Weekly highlights

The big takeaways from the past week’s legislative actions. 

Lawmakers in seven states acted on 38 bills over the last week, one fewer than the previous week. 

  • No bills were passed this week. There were 18 bills enacted during the same week in 2024, none in 2023, and four in 2022.
  • Twenty-six of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, and 12 are in states with Republican trifectas.  
  • The most active bill categories this week were voter registration and list maintenance (5), audits and oversight (3), counting and certification (3), and election types and contest-specific procedures (3).

In the news

A glance at what’s making headlines in the world of election law.

Here are some of the newsworthy election-related developments since our last edition.

  • On Dec. 31, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster (R) could not be disciplined after the State Bar of Texas alleged Webster and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) provided false evidence to the U.S. Supreme Court. The state challenged the presidential election results in several states after President Joe Biden’s (D) 2020 victory, after which the state bar sought to have Webster and Paxton disbarred. 
  • On Dec. 31, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that the secretary of state has the authority to restrict third-party access to voting machines and to decertify those machines if counties allow such access. In 2021, the state decertified machines in Fulton County after two Republican county commissioners allowed a technology company to examine them. The County then filed a lawsuit challenging the secretary’s authority to do so. 
  • On Dec. 27, the Hawaii Supreme Court dismissed Maui County Council candidate Kelly King’s challenge of the general election results, in which incumbent Tom Cook defeated King by 97 votes. King alleged that the County improperly rejected a portion of the approximately 1,100 deficient ballots because of missing or invalid signatures and did not assist voters in correcting these issues.    
  • On Dec. 23, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and Governor-elect Josh Stein (D) sued Republican legislators over Senate Bill 382, which transfers the power to appoint members of the state elections board from the governor to the state auditor’s office. Cooper vetoed the bill on Dec. 2, but the Republican-controlled Legislature overrode Cooper’s veto on Dec. 11. 

Key movements

A look at what bills are moving, and where. 

No bills were enacted in the past week. To see all enacted bills, click here.

Twenty-one bills passed both chambers of the legislature. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action and their full summaries, click here.

  • Massachusetts (Democratic trifecta)
    • MA H5076
      • Amends the Williamstown town charter, including removing the School Committee from the list of elected town officials
    • MA H4868
      • Amends the charter of the city of Gardner, including extending the mayor’s term from one year to two years.
    • MA H4559
      • Establishes an amended charter for the town of Scituate.
      • Provides that legislative powers for the town will continue to be exercised by an open town meeting, and provides that the presiding officer will be an elected moderator, who will serve a one-year term, and who will appoint a deputy moderator at the first town meeting after his or her election.
      • Provides that the following offices will be elected in the town: select board, a moderator, school committee, planning board, board of assessors, board of library trustees, town clerk, housing authority.
    • MA H5134
      • Increases the membership of the select board (formerly known as the board of selectmen) in the town of Paxton from three members to five members.
    • MA H4272
      • Stipulates the reason for which a recall election in North Brookfield can be initiated: lack of fitness, corruption, neglect of duties, or misfeasance. 
    • MA H4638
      • Prohibits a city councillor or member of the school committee from holding any appointed city office, or any city employment, during his or her term of elected office. This bill also prohibits anyone from running for more than one municipal office during the same election.
    • MA H4551
      • Establishes the procedures for filling a vacancy for the mayor in the city of Revere and that the president of the city council will serve as “acting mayor” until the vacancy is filled.
    • MA S2943
      • Amends the charter of the town of Southbridge.
    • MA H5002
      • Authorizes elected town officials in Williamstown with more than 6 months in their term to be recalled through a recall petition procedure.
      • Requires a recall petition application to be signed by at least 200 voters for a recall petition to be circulated.
      • Requires a recall petition to be signed by 10 percent of voters in the town for a recall election to take place.
    • MA H4684
      • Establishes the town clerk of the town of Grafton is to be an appointed position rather than an elected position.
    • MA H4683
      • Establishes that the Housing Authority in the town of Grafton is to consist of five members, three elected and two appointed, rather than the currently four elected and one appointed.
    • MA H4091
      • Prohibits a candidate from serving in a municipal elected office in the town of Provincetown if they have a currently filed declaration of estate of homestead in any jurisdiction other than Provincetown.
  • Michigan (Democratic trifecta)
    • MI HB5572
      • Authorizes the board of state canvassers to use a statistical random sampling methodology to determine the validity and sufficiency of signatures and petition form requirements on nominating petitions filed.
      • Authorizes the board of state canvassers to disqualify a signature without checking the signature against the local registration records or the qualified voter file if the board of state canvassers determines that any signature affixed to a petition is obviously fraudulent. If disqualified, the board must refer that signature to the department of the attorney general or further investigation.
      • Authorizes the board of state canvassers to not act on a complaint respecting the validity and genuineness of signatures on a petition unless the complaint is received by the board of state canvassers within 7 days after the filing of the nominating petition, or, if the board of state canvassers uses statistical random sampling, within seven days after the random sample is made available to the public.
    • MI HB5551
      • Prohibits an individual from being a member of the board of state or county canvassers if the individual has been convicted of an election-related offense. 
    • MI HB5571
      • Requires a referendum to be prepared in a substantially similar format as other referendums. Cities and township identification replaces congressional district identification. This bill also allows the board of state canvassers to use statistical random sampling methodology. 
    • MI HB6053
      • Expands the scope of the regulations regarding court actions to cover actions related to polling places, drop box locations, and early voting locations.
    • MI HB5575
      • Requires a petitioner to state in writing that they have made a good faith effort to sort the petitions based on the number of signatures contained on each petition sheet and that the petitioner is submitting at least the minimum number of required signatures. 
    • MI HB5574
      • Removes the provision for the notification of filing a petition to be by first class mail. The certification for the statement of the purpose of a proposed constitutional amendment must be submitted by the secretary of state in no less than 65 days. This bill also removes the requirement for county clerks to furnish copies of the statement to the township and city clerks.
    • MI HB5576
      • Authorizes the board of state canvassers to use a statistical random sampling method which they approve to determine validity and sufficiency of petition signature and petition form requirements for petitions to create a new political party.
    • MI HB6052
      • Allows the use of on-demand ballot printing systems for absentee/mail-in ballots for Election Day voters. 
      • Removes the requirement to compare ballot cast with the poll list for these on-demand ballots and early voting ballots created by on-demand systems.
    • MI HB5573
      • Requires a board of canvassers to use a statistical random sampling method, approved by the board of state canvassers, to determine the validity of signatures and petition form requirements for nominating petitions.
      • Stipulates that if the board of state canvassers determines any petition signature is fraudulent, the signature will be referred to the attorney general for investigation.
      • Eliminates a requirement that the number of petition signatures on a referendum petition be proportional by congressional district. 

Governors vetoed no bills. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, 2023, or 2023. To see all vetoed bills, click here.

The big picture

Zooming out to see the macro-level trends in election policy so far this year. 

Enacted bills

With the new year just underway, and most state legislative sessions just getting started, there are no new enactments to report. The chart below shows the number of enacted bills in 2025 compared to previous years.

All bills

There are 376 election-related bills this year, including bills that were carried over from the previous year. See the chart below for a breakdown of all legislation by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

  • Trifecta status
    • Democratic: 34 (9%)
    • Republican: 320 (85.1%) 
    • Divided: 22 (5.9%) 
  • Partisan sponsorship
    • Democratic: 139 (37%)
    • Republican: 189 (50.3%)
    • Bipartisan: 3 (0.8%)
    • Other: 45 (12%)