The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, April 11, 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 639 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.

Weekly highlights

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

Lawmakers in 43 states acted on 639 bills over the last week, 11 fewer than last week. 

  • Twenty-nine bills were enacted this week. Twenty-six bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 17 bills were enacted in 2023, and nine bills were enacted in 2022.
  • Legislators acted on 232 bills in 2024, 134 in 2023, and 140 bills in 2022 during the same week. 
  • One hundred fifty-five of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 417 are in states with Republican trifectas, and 67 are in states with a divided government.  
  • The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (158), campaign finance (138), and election dates and deadlines (83).
  • We are currently following 4,234 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 2,406 bills.

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 April 10, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, a bill requiring anyone registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship. The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate. 
  • On April 10, the Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto of SB5, a bill prohibiting the use of federal funds for election-related activities in the state. Kelly vetoed the bill on March 31, saying, “Restricting federal funds for elections and election-related activities without legislative approval is not just unnecessary micromanagement; it undermines our ability to conduct secure and efficient elections.” On March 25, the legislature overrode Kelly’s veto of SB4, a bill that changes the deadline for county election officers to receive mail-in ballots.
  • On April 7, the Iowa Senate approved HF954, a bill that would allow poll workers to challenge voters’ citizenship, ban ranked-choice voting, and require political parties to receive at least 2% of the vote in three consecutive general elections to be considered a major political party. The bill now heads to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ (R) desk.
  • On April 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit challenging Nevada’s SB406, a bill protecting election workers and officials from intimidation and violence. The plaintiffs argued that the law did not adequately specify what constituted intimidation or define who qualified as an election worker.
  • On April 7, the West Virginia House of Delegates approved a bill requiring municipalities to hold their elections on the same day as state elections. Legislators passed SB50 by a 96 to 2 vote, and the bill now returns to the Senate to consider House amendments.

Key movements

A look at what bills are moving and where. 

Twenty-nine bills were enacted in the past week. Twenty-nine bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 15 bills were enacted in 2023, and no bills were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills and their full summaries, click here.

  • Georgia (Republican trifecta)
  • Nebraska (Republican trifecta)
  • North Dakota (Republican trifecta)

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

  • Colorado (Democratic trifecta)
  • Virginia (divided government)

Governors vetoed 15 bills in the past week. Twenty-one bills have been vetoed so far this year. One bill was vetoed during this period in 2024, four bills were vetoed in 2023, and no bills were vetoed in 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.

State legislatures overrode one gubernatorial veto this week. There have been two veto overrides so far this year. 

  • Kansas (divided government)

The big picture

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

Enacted bills

Twenty-nine bills were 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 15 weeks of each year.

All bills

We are following 4,234 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year. 

  • Trifecta status
    • Democratic: 1,559 (%)
    • Republican: 2,016 (%) 
    • Divided: 659 (%) 
  • Partisan sponsorship
    • Democratic: 1,623 (%)
    • Republican:  2,087 (%)
    • Bipartisan: 301 (%)
    • Other: 223 (%)

We were following 2,406 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

  • Trifecta status
    • Democratic: 1,251 (52%)
    • Republican: 800 (33.3%) 
    • Divided: 355 (14.8%) 
  • Partisan sponsorship
    • Democratic: 1079 (44.8%)
    • Republican: 906 (37.7%)
    • Bipartisan: 281 (11.7%)
    • Other: 140 (5.8%)

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.