Welcome to the Monday, Feb. 3, Brew.
By: Briana Ryan
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- A look at how the 2025 Virginia House of Delegates elections could affect three proposed constitutional amendments
- Texas Senate Education Committee advances education savings account bill for a full chamber vote
- A weekly roundup of election administration state legislation activity
A look at how the 2025 Virginia House of Delegates elections could affect three proposed constitutional amendments
We’ve previously written about the long-term effect that the results of one election can have on future ballots (Nevada and Pennsylvania). Today, let’s take a peek at Virginia and why the placement of at least three constitutional amendments on the 2026 ballot in Virginia will depend on the results of the House of Delegates elections later this year.
Democrats currently have a 21-19 majority in the Senate and a 51-49 majority in the House. The Senate has had a Democratic majority since 2019, while control of the House has alternated between parties.
Both the Senate and House have passed their own versions of the amendments. One version of each amendment must pass the other chamber to clear the first session requirement. However, both chambers must approve the same amendment again in 2026 to appear on the ballot.
Let’s take a closer look at how Democratic and Republican assembly members voted on the amendments.
- Right to Reproductive Freedom (HJR 1, SJR 247): All Democrats in both chambers supported the amendment, while all Republicans opposed it.
- Remove Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban (HJR 9, SJR 249): In the House, seven Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the amendment, while 35 Republicans opposed it. In the Senate, three Republicans joined all 21 Democrats in supporting the amendment, while 15 Republicans opposed it.
- Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Upon Release (HJR 2, SJR 248): In the House, four Republicans joined all 51 Democrats in supporting the amendment, while 44 Republicans opposed it. In the Senate, all 21 Democrats supported the amendment, while all 19 Republicans opposed it.
This is not the first time that the Assembly will consider the amendments on same-sex marriage and voting rights for felons. During the 2021 session, the Democratic-controlled Assembly passed the amendments. However, when Republicans gained control of the House in 2022, the House Privileges and Elections Subcommittee voted against advancing the amendments to a full House vote. So, that means both amendments must start from square one again.
All 100 seats in the House will be on the ballot this November. However, all 40 seats in the Senate will not be on the ballot until 2027.
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D) said, “The passage of three constitutional amendments today by the Senate are a major milestone towards recognizing the fundamental rights of all Virginians. Senate Democrats ran on codifying Roe v. Wade, affirming marriage equality and excising Jim Crow from the Constitution of Virginia and today we delivered. This starts the process of giving Virginia voters a chance to affirm cherished rights.”
Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle (R) criticized the Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment for excluding language that would require parental consent for minors seeking an abortion: “When it comes to the amendments, we pick parents’ abilities to be able to be involved in their children’s decisions as the highest priority. Those are the things that we are fighting for this session and will continue to fight for.”
Eight other states also have a two-session requirement in which legislatures must pass a constitutional amendment over two successive legislative sessions to put it on the ballot.
Changes in legislative party control have often affected amendments requiring approval in two sessions. Between the 2010 and 2024 legislative sessions, 131 amendments were approved during one legislative session in the states with two-session vote requirements. Forty-six of those amendments (35.1%) failed during the second legislative session.
From 2010 to 2024, when party control of the legislature changed between sessions, 81% (17 of 21) of the amendments approved during the first session failed, and 19% (4 of 21) passed during the second session.
To learn more about the two-session requirement in Virginia, check out the latest episode of our weekly podcast, On the Ballot. You can also click the link below to learn more about each of the three amendments we discussed today.
Texas Senate Education Committee advances education savings account bill for a full chamber vote
The Texas Senate Education Committee voted 9-2 on Jan. 28 to advance Senate Bill 2 for a full chamber vote. The vote was along party lines, with all nine committee Republicans voting in favor of advancing the bill and both Democrats voting against it.
The bill would create an education savings account (ESA) program that would provide $10,000 per year for any student enrolled in an approved private school. The bill would provide $11,500 annually for students with disabilities enrolled in an approved private school and $2,000 annually for students participating in the program but not enrolled in an accredited private school.
ESA programs are a type of school choice program. That’s something Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he would make a priority in the 2025 legislative session. In the state’s 2024 House of Representatives primaries, Abbott endorsed 15 Republican candidates who supported school choice. Eleven candidates won their respective primaries or primary runoffs, and all 11 also won their respective general elections.
Those new representatives could provide enough votes to pass school choice legislation. Abbott said the House now has 79 school choice proponents, slightly more than the simple majority (76) needed to pass school choice legislation.
Republicans have had a trifecta in Texas since 2003. During the 2023 legislative session, 21 House Republicans joined all 63 Democrats in voting to remove an ESA provision from an education bill. Meanwhile, 63 Republicans voted against removing it.
Of the Republicans who voted to remove the ESA provision in the 2023 legislative session, nine lost in the 2024 primaries, five opted not to run again, and seven returned to the House for the 2025 legislative session.
One returning Republican representative, Jay Dean, did not support vouchers in the 2023 session but told school board members in his district that legislation was likely to pass. Like other representatives from rural areas, Dean has criticized universal school choice due to worries about its effect on rural districts.
Abbott said, “They make it sound like you can’t have both school choice and robust public schools. That’s completely false. The reality is we can have the best public schools in America and also have school choice at the very same time. It does not have to be one or the other, and it’s wrong to pit one against the other.”
The bill was added to the Senate’s intent calendar for Feb. 4.
The map below shows the states that have some form of ESA program as of January 2025.
A weekly roundup of election administration state legislative activity
As legislative sessions continue across the country. Let’s look at where lawmakers are considering changes to election administration. A version of this story appeared in our Jan. 31. Ballot Bulletin, our weekly email that delivers the latest updates on election policy. Click here to sign up.
We are following 1,540 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year. At this point in 2023, we were following 1,135 bills.
Lawmakers in 28 states acted on 244 bills last week, 28 more than the previous week. Legislators acted on 316 bills during the same week in 2024, 322 in 2023, and 325 in 2022.
No bills were enacted this week. No bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, and three were enacted in the same week in 2023 and 2022.
Here are some of the newsworthy election-related developments since our last edition.
- On Jan. 29, Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin (R) submitted additional filings to the Wake County Superior Court concerning his lawsuit challenging ballots cast in last year’s North Carolina Supreme Court race, where Griffin ran against Allison Riggs (D). In the new filings, Griffin alleged that the number of voters who have never resided in North Carolina or the U.S. but voted in the election could exceed the number indicated in previous filings.
- On Jan. 28, a judge on the Second Judicial District Court of Nevada dismissed a lawsuit challenging voter roll maintenance practices in Washoe County, Nevada. The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed the lawsuit in May 2024, alleging that the county’s voter rolls contained commercial addresses, violating a state law requiring residential addresses for registration.
- On Jan. 23, officials in Nassau County, New York, agreed to redraw district maps for the 19-member Nassau County Legislature. After the county legislature approved the district boundaries in 2023, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit alleging the maps disenfranchised voters of color.
- On Jan. 23, the State Bar of Texas dropped its lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) over the state’s challenge to presidential election results in several states after President Joe Biden’s (D) 2020 victory. Previously, 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 Paxton provided false evidence to the U.S. Supreme Court.
No bills passed both chambers of any legislature, and governors vetoed no bills. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action and their full summaries, click here. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
Click here to see the 2025 bills we’re tracking, and click here to see a list of 2025 state legislative session dates.
Note: In some states, legislators can file hundreds of bills per day. We are actively reviewing those bills to determine their relevance to election administration. As a result, during this period of heightened legislative activity, year-to-year comparisons may not yet account for all relevant bills introduced in 2025.