Year: 2025
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Ballotpedia has tracked each major party's number of U.S. House seats won in relation to U.S. House national vote share gained from 1980 to 2024 (Brew)
As states implement or consider new congressional district boundaries ahead of the 2026 elections, debates over how votes translate into control of U.S. House seats are in the spotlight. Our review of more than 40 years of data shows that the share of all House votes a party receives across the country does not always…
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State legislative session updates: possible special sessions
As of Sept. 8, eight state legislatures are in regular session for this year, and one state is in special session, according to the 2025 MultiState Insider Resource. California’s regular session ends on Sept. 12. North Carolina’s regular session ends on Nov. 5. Massachusetts' regular session ends on Nov. 19. The remaining five states—Michigan, New…
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Massachusetts attorney general approves 44 initiatives to gather signatures for the 2026 and 2028 ballots
The Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General announced on Sept. 3 that 44 separate initiative petitions have been approved to begin gathering signatures in support of the proposed laws. The attorney general’s approval to gather signatures does not indicate support for the initiatives or a guarantee that the initiative will be placed on the ballot.…
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All 18 uncontested state legislative incumbents in 2025 are Democrats
All 18 state legislative incumbents who do not have general election challengers this November are Democrats. There are 168 incumbents running for re-election. That means 10.7% of the state legislative incumbents running this year in New Jersey and Virginia are guaranteed re-election. Ballotpedia uses the number and percentage of incumbents in uncontested general elections to…
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Ballotpedia releases federal judicial vacancy count for September 2025
In this month’s federal judicial vacancy count, Ballotpedia tracked nominations, confirmations, and vacancies from Aug. 2 through Sept. 1, 2025. Ballotpedia publishes the federal judicial vacancy count at the start of each month. HIGHLIGHTS New vacancies There were 50 vacancies out of 870 active Article III judicial positions, a total vacancy percentage of 5.7, which…
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12 states permitted unlimited contributions from individuals to state-level candidates in 2024
During the 2023-2024 election cycle, 12 states permitted unlimited contributions from individuals to state-level candidates. Unlike presidential and congressional elections, where federal law stipulates uniform campaign finance laws, each state is responsible for implementing and enforcing its own campaign finance laws for state-level elections. Generally speaking, campaign finance laws regulate the sources and amounts of…