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 349 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week’s legislative actions.
Lawmakers in 38 states acted on 349 bills over the last week, 152 fewer than last week.
- Three bills were enacted this week. Seven bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, two bills were enacted in 2023, and one bill was enacted in 2022.
- Legislators acted on 258 bills in 2024, 294 in 2023, and 342 bills in 2022 during the same week.
- Sixty-nine of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 197 are in states with Republican trifectas, and 83 are in states with a divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (202), campaign finance (123), and voter registration and list maintenance (85).
- We are currently following 3,001 bills. We were following 1,596 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. 19, a Georgia House of Representatives committee advanced HB215, a bill that would prohibit the secretary of state from participating in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Georgia is currently one of 24 states that are participating members of ERIC.
- On Feb. 18, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed a bill decreasing the duration of early voting and allowing county officials to tabulate early ballots at any time during the early voting period. Hobbs said, “Unfortunately, any potential compromise was rejected, leading me to believe the focus of this legislation is disenfranchising voters, not delivering faster election results for Arizonans.” The bill is the first election-related bill to be vetoed so far this year.
- On Feb. 18, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed SB102, a bill regulating canvassers for local ballot measures. The bill requires ballot measure sponsors to conduct criminal background checks, submit lists of canvassers to county clerks, prohibits paying canvassers based on the number of signatures they obtain, and creates penalties for violating these requirements.
- On Feb. 18, the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the use of mobile voting sites. Ken Brown, the chairman of the Racine County Republican Party, filed the lawsuit in August 2022. Brown argued that the county’s use of a mobile voting van in 2022 violated state law and that continued use of mobile voting sites would lead to voter fraud.
- On Feb. 14, the Kansas House of Representatives approved HB2106, a bill prohibiting foreign nationals from contributing to ballot measure campaigns. The House passed the bill 94-25, and it now heads to the Kansas State Senate.
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
Three bills were 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 and their full summaries, click here.
- Arkansas (Republican trifecta)
- AR SB102: Regulates election petition canvassers and establishes penalties for petition violations.
- South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
Thirteen bills passed both chambers of state legislatures. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action and their full summaries, click here.
- Arkansas (Republican trifecta)
- AR HB1223: Allows incumbent Supreme Court or Court Of Appeals candidates to use their official title on the ballot.
- Arizona (divided government)
- AZ HB2703: Modifies provisions related to the duration of early voting, ballot tabulation methods, and voting location procedures.
- Montana (Republican trifecta)
- MT HB39: Repeals a prohibition of political parties from making contributions to judicial candidates.
- South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
- SD HB1072: Amends election procedures in and board composition of water development districts.
- Virginia (divided government)
- VA SB1119: Modifies primary dates and campaign finance reporting in presidential election years.
- VA SB991: Changes voter registration deadlines from 21 to 10 days before primary and general elections, and from 13 to 10 days before special elections.
- VA SB813: Changes the period within which the general registrar must cancel a voter’s registration from 30 to 60 days after the Department of Motor Vehicles or Department of Elections notifies the registrar of the voter’s ineligibility.
- VA HB2092: Amends municipal election procedures in the Town of Buchanan.
- VA HB2352: Amends municipal election procedures in the Town of Dumfries.
- VA SB1300: Amends municipal election procedures in the Town of Dumfries.
- VA HB1669: Amends municipal election procedures in the Town of Brodanx.
- VA HB2760: Amends municipal election procedures in the Town of Ashland.
- VA HB1645: Amends municipal election procedures in the City of Chesapeake.
Governors vetoed one bill. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, 2023, or 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
- Arizona (divided government)
- AZ HB2703: Modifies provisions related to the duration of early voting, ballot tabulation methods, and voting location procedures.
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 3,001 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,153 (38.4%)
- Republican: 1,410 (47%)
- Divided: 438 (14.6%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,169 (39%)
- Republican: 1,493 (49.8%)
- Bipartisan: 192 (6.4%)
- Other: 147 (4.9%)
We were following 1,596 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 809 (50.7%)
- Republican: 626 (3.9%)
- Divided: 161 (10.1%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 670 (42%)
- Republican: 695 (43.5%)
- Bipartisan: 122 (7.6%)
- Other: 109 (6.8%)
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.
