Legislative activity has been slower this year than in 2023 and 2022. States have enacted 24 bills so far in 2024, compared to 35 in 2023 and 38 in 2022.
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, legislative activity, and updates on notable lawsuits and policy changes.
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Legislative highlights
- Six bills have been approved since our last edition. Twenty-four bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 35 in 2023 and 38 in 2022.
- State legislatures acted on 407 bills this week, 152 more than last week.
- Democrats sponsored 144 (35.4%) of the bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored 190 (46.7%) bills. Forty-two (10.3%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship. Thirty-one (7.6%) bills had sponsors other than Democrats or Republicans, such as nonpartisan lawmakers or committee sponsorship.
- One hundred sixteen (28.5%) bills are in states with Democratic trifectas, 216 (53.1%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 75 (18.4%) are in states with a divided government.
- One hundred thirty-nine bills passed one or both chambers or were enacted this week. Twenty-five were in Democratic trifectas, and of those, Democrats sponsored 15. Seventy-four were in Republican trifectas, and of those, Republicans sponsored 47.
- The top bill topics this week were:
- Election types and contest-specific procedures (67)
- Voter registration and list maintenance (36)
- Absentee/mail-in voting (34)
- Ballot access (28)
- Election dates and deadlines (26)
Recent activity
Enacted bills
States approved six election-related bills since our last edition, compared to 19 in 2023 and eight in 2022 during the same period. To see all enacted bills, click here.
New Mexico (Democratic trifecta)
New York (Democratic trifecta)
- NY S08664: Relates to the dates to file a designating petition for Congress and party positions in 2024; provides that signatures for certain offices and party positions made earlier than February 29th be counted.
- NY S08653: Repeals and enacts new provisions creating congressional districts.
South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
- SD HB1182: Revise provisions pertaining to the observation of the conduct of an election.
West Virginia (Republican trifecta)
- WV SR61: Encouraging WV military veterans to volunteer as election workers in 2024 statewide elections
Bills that passed both chambers
Forty-five bills have passed both chambers since our last edition and await gubernatorial action. To see all bills that have currently passed both chambers, click here.
Vetoed bills
There have been no gubernatorial vetoes since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023 or in 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
Recent activity by topic and sponsorship
The chart below shows the topics and partisan sponsorship of the bills with legislative activity since our last edition. Click here to see a full list of bill categories and their definitions.
* Note: Contest-specific procedures refer to primary systems, municipal election procedures, recall elections, special election procedures, and other systems unique to a particular election type.
Recent activity by state and trifecta status
Of the 407 bills with activity this week, 116 (28.5%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 216 (53.1%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 75 (18.4%) are in states with a divided government.
The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.
All legislation
Enacted bills by sponsorship and trifecta status
States have enacted 24 bills so far this year, compared to 35 bills in 2023 and 38 bills in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Eleven of the election-related bills passed this year (45.8%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 10 (41.7%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and three (12.5%) are in states with a divided government. The table below shows the number of enacted election-related bills introduced by trifecta status this year compared to 2023 and 2022.
All bills by topic and sponsorship
The chart below displays the topic and sponsorship of a sample of the 3,231 total bills we’ve followed this year. Note that the sums of the numbers listed do not equal the total number of bills because some bills deal with multiple topics.
All bills by sponsorship and trifecta status
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 968 (30%) are Democrat-sponsored bills in Democratic trifecta states. Republicans sponsored 686 (21.2%) bills in states with Republican trifectas.
The chart below shows the percentage of all election-related bills by sponsorship and trifecta status.
All bills by state and trifecta status
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,480 (45.8%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,166 (36.1%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 585 (18.1%) are in states with divided governments.
Of all active bills in 2023, 42% were in states with Democratic trifectas, 43.8% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 14.2% were in states with divided governments. In 2022, 37.8% of bills were in states with Democratic trifectas, 30.4% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 31.8% were in states with divided governments.
The map below shows the number of election-related bills introduced by state and trifecta status this year.
