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 40 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 40 bills over the last week, 85 fewer than last week. Ten state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions.
- Three bills were enacted this week. Five bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 11 were enacted in 2023, and two were enacted in 2022.
- Legislators acted on 48 bills in 2024 and 21 in 2023 during the same week.
- Thirty-six of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, and four are in states with Republican trifectas.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (25), ballot access (5), counting and certification (5), and election dates and deadlines (5).
- We are currently following 4,636 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 2,868 bills.
In the news
A glance at what’s making headlines in the world of election law.
- On July 9, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) signed SB152, prohibiting the foreign funding of ballot measure campaigns. This move makes Missouri the 19th state to prohibit foreign nationals or governments from contributing to ballot measure committees, and the ninth state this year.
- On July 8, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) vetoed HB356, a bill that would have allowed for partisan school board elections. In her veto message, Ayotte said, “Local school board elections are run properly and in a nonpartisan manner, and there is no need to fix a system that is not broken. Making these local elections into partisan fights will create unnecessary division between Granite Staters.”
- On July 8, a group of Wisconsin business owners filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court alleging that the state’s congressional districts are unconstitutionally gerrymandered. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently declined to hear two other lawsuits asking the state to redraw congressional districts before the 2026 election.
- On July 3, 2025, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to rehear its May 2025 decision that Native American groups lack standing to sue the state of North Dakota for alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act. Two North Dakota tribes and three Indigenous North Dakotans filed the lawsuit in 2022, alleging the state’s legislative districts diluted their voting power.
- On June 30, Emilio Gonzalez, a candidate for mayor of Miami, Florida, filed a lawsuit against the city challenging a decision to move elections from odd to even years. The Miami City Commission approved a measure to postpone municipal elections until November 2026 in a 3-2 vote last month.
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
Three bills were enacted in the past week. Ten bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 19 were enacted in 2023, and 11 were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.
- New Jersey (Democratic trifecta)
Four bills passed both chambers of state legislatures. To see the full list of all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
- California (Democratic trifecta)
One bill was vetoed in the past week. Sixty-four bills have been vetoed so far this year. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, no bills were vetoed in 2023, and one bill was vetoed in 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
- New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)
The big picture
Zooming out to see the macro-level trends in election policy so far this year.
Enacted bills
Three 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 28 weeks of each year.
All bills
We are following 4,636 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,734 (37.4%)
- Republican: 2,131 (46%)
- Divided: 771 (16.6%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,776 (38.3%)
- Republican: 2,240 (48.3%)
- Bipartisan: 397 (8.6%)
- Other: 223 (4.8%)
We were following 2,868 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,516 (52.9%)
- Republican: 932 (32.5%)
- Divided: 420 (14.6%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,329 (46.3%)
- Republican: 1,045 (36.4%)
- Bipartisan: 327 (11.4%)
- Other: 167 (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.
