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 501 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.

Weekly highlights

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

Lawmakers in 34 states acted on 501 bills over the last week, 178 fewer than last week. 

• One bill was enacted this week. No bills were enacted during the same week in 2024 or 2023, and one bill was enacted in 2022.
• Legislators acted on 404 bills in 2024, 289 in 2023, and 342 bills in 2022 during the same week. 
• One hundred one of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 275 are in states with Republican trifectas, and 125 are in states with a divided government.  
• The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (195), campaign finance (104), and voter registration and list maintenance (74).
• We are currently following 2,631 bills. We were following 1,466 bills at this time in 2023.

Note: In some states, legislators are able to 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.

In the news

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

• On Feb. 13, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill decreasing the duration of early voting and allowing county officials to tabulate early ballots at any time during the early voting period. Governor Katie Hobbs (D) said she would veto the bill. 
• On Feb. 12, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed HB45, a bill prohibiting foreign donors from contributing to ballot measure campaigns. The bill received bipartisan support, with all 80 House Republicans and eight of the 20 Democrats voting in favor.  
• On Feb. 11, the New York Court of Appeals heard arguments in a lawsuit over New York City’s noncitizen voting regulations. The New York City Council approved legislation allowing some noncitizens to vote in certain municipal elections in 2022, but a trial court blocked the law’s implementation. 
• On Feb. 11, a Vermont Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the city of Burlington’s election policies allowing noncitizens to vote. In 2023, the city amended its charter to allow noncitizens who are legal U.S. residents, Burlington residents, and at least 18 years old, to vote in local elections.

Key movements

A look at what bills are moving and where. 

One bill was enacted in the past week. There were no bills enacted during the same week in 2024, none in 2023, and one in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.

• South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
  • SD SB13
    • Specifies that initiated or referred measures, if approved, take effect the day after election returns are officially canvassed.

Three bills passed both chambers of state legislatures. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action and their full summaries, click here.

• Arizona (divided government)
  • AZ HB2703: Modifies provisions related to the duration of early voting, ballot tabulation methods, and voting location procedures.
• Florida (Republican trifecta)
  • FL S0002: Prohibits noncitizens from voting in the state’s elections.
• Vermont (divided government)
  • VT H0078: Allows municipalities to use the Australian ballot system for local elections. 

Governors vetoed no bills. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, 2023, or 2022. 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

One bill was enacted this week. The chart below shows the number of enacted bills in 2025 compared to previous years.

The chart below shows the number of bills enacted over the first 12 weeks of each year.

All bills

We are following 2,631 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year. 

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 1,001 (38%)
  • Republican: 1,252 (47.6%) 
  • Divided:  378 (14.4%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 1,013 (38.5%)
  • Republican: 1,311 (49.8%)
  • Bipartisan: 167 (6.3%)
  • Other: 140 (5.3%)

We were following 1,466 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 733 (50%)
  • Republican: 568 (38.7%) 
  • Divided: 165 (11.3%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 573 (39.1%)
  • Republican: 704 (48%)
  • Bipartisan: 108 (7.4%)
  • Other: 81 (5.5%)

See the charts below for a comparison of total bills between 2023 and 2025 and a breakdown of all 2025 legislation by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.