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 24 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 24 bills over the last week, eight more than last week. Seven state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions. 

• One bill was enacted this week. Two were enacted during the same week in 2024, two were enacted in 2023, and two were enacted during the same week in 2022.
• Legislators acted on 12 bills in 2024 and 50 bills in 2023 during the same week. 
• Ten of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, three are in a state with a Republican trifecta, and eleven are in states with a divided government.  
• The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (18), absentee/mail-in voting (7), counting and certification (7), and voter registration and list maintenance (7). 
• We are currently following 4,914 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 3,190 bills.

In the news

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

• On Nov. 13, the U.S. Department of Justice joined a lawsuit challenging California's Proposition 50, a constitutional amendment to allow the state to use a new congressional district map for elections from 2026 through 2030. Republican state legislators in California filed the lawsuit last week against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D), alleging that the new map is unconstitutional because it uses race as a factor to favor particular voters. Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said the plaintiffs "lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court."
• On Nov. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Watson v. Republican National Committee, a lawsuit challenging a Mississippi law allowing officials to count mail-in ballots if they are received within five business days after Election Day. Mississippi is one of 16 states that accept and count absentee/mail-in ballots received after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before Election Day.
• On Nov. 10, a Utah district court judge rejected a redrawn congressional district map the legislature proposed that would have maintained four Republican-leaning districts in favor of a proposal from the plaintiffs in the case that added one Democratic-leaning district. According to the order, the new Democratic district had a 43% Republican vote share.
• On Nov. 7, a Catoosa County Superior Court judge ruled that the Catoosa County Republican Party could not enforce additional requirements for candidates to qualify for ballot access beyond what Georgia law requires. Previously, the party had required candidates to obtain a qualifying affidavit, which a majority of the party’s 16-member county executive committee must approve.

Key movements

A look at what bills are moving and where. 

One bill was enacted in the past week. Two bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, two were enacted in 2023, and two were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.

• Michigan (divided government)
  • MI HR0196

No bills passed both chambers of a state legislature. To see the full list of all bills awaiting 

gubernatorial action, click here.

No bills were vetoed in the past week. Seventy-one bills have been vetoed so far this year. 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 46 weeks of each year.

All bills

We are following 4,914 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year. 

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 1,800 (36.6%)
  • Republican: 2,272 (46.3%) 
  • Divided: 842 (17.1%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 1,913 (38.9%)
  • Republican: 2,364 (48.2%)
  • Bipartisan: 411 (8.4%)
  • Other: 226 (4.6%)

We were following 3,190 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 1,600 (50.2%)
  • Republican: 1,076 (33.7%) 
  • Divided: 514 (16.1%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 1,460 (45.8%)
  • Republican: 1,186 (37.2%)
  • Bipartisan: 364 (11.4%)
  • Other: 180 (5.6%)

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.