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 79 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.

Weekly highlights

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

Lawmakers in 13 states acted on 79 bills over the last week, 41 more than the previous week. 

• Four bills were enacted this week. There was one bill enacted during the same week in 2024, two in 2023, and two in 2022.
• Fifty-one of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 27 are in states with Republican trifectas, and one is in a state with a divided government.  
• The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (14), campaign finance (12), and ballot access (5).

In the news

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

Here are some of the newsworthy election-related developments since our last edition.

• On Jan. 8, the Wisconsin Senate approved a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that would add the state’s voter ID requirements to its constitution. The Wisconsin Assembly will now consider and vote on the proposal.
• On Jan. 7, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued a stay blocking the State Board of Elections from certifying the results of the 2024 supreme court election between Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin (R) and state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs (D). Griffin previously filed challenges to approximately 60,000 voters’ eligibility after two recounts showed Riggs leading by a few hundred votes. If a federal court does not take action on this case, it will remain under the state Supreme Court’s jurisdiction, and both parties will spend the rest of the month filing their arguments in court.
• On Jan. 7, Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill requiring election administrators to verify voters’ eligibility when they register to vote. The bill would require administrators to coordinate with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to verify registrants’ citizenship status and felony conviction record.
• On Jan. 6, supporters of a Maine voter ID requirement submitted more than 170,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot this fall. If approved by voters, the measure would require voters to show a photo ID in person at the polls or when requesting an absentee ballot.
• On Jan. 6, the Republican Party of Minnesota and the Minnesota Voters Alliance filed a lawsuit with the Minnesota Supreme Court against Gov. Tim Walz (D) and other state officials over the special election date for state House District 40B. The groups allege the Jan. 28 election date violates a state law they say requires the Legislature, which reconvenes on Jan. 14, to be in session for 22 days before a special election can be held.

Key movements

A look at what bills are moving and where. 

Four bills were enacted in the past week. To see all enacted bills, click here.

• Massachusetts (Democratic trifecta)
  • MA S2943
    • Establishes a town council-town manager form of government in the town of Southbridge and provides for the initiative, referendum, and recall of elected officials by the voters.
  • MA H5098
    • Amends the governing structure for the City of Lawrence School Board, including requiring that the board have three elected members and outlining vacancy procedures. 
  • MA H4818
    • Proposes a ballot question to the voters of the town of Lancaster to decide whether or not to increase the membership of the Select Board from three to five members.

• Ohio (Republican trifecta)
  • OH HB315
    • Requires the board of elections to submit a ballot question to voters when there is a resolution to change a township’s name, and provides related language for the ballot.
    • Modifies the voter notification requirement for elections in townships, requiring at least one of the following notification methods be used for any election: publication in a newspaper, placement on an official public notice website, or placement on the township’s website or social media account (instead of only requiring notification to be placed in a newspaper).

No bills passed both chambers of any legislature. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action and their full summaries, click here.

Governors vetoed no bills. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, 2023, or 2023. 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

Four 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 12 weeks of each year.

All bills

There are 465 election-related bills this year, including bills that were carried over from the previous year. See the chart below for a breakdown of all legislation by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 55 (11.8%)
  • Republican: 383 (82.4%) 
  • Divided: 27 (5.8%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 172 (37%)
  • Republican: 218 (46.9%)
  • Bipartisan: 6 (1.3%)
  • Other: 69 (14.8%)

We were following 628 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 320 (51%)
  • Republican: 258 (41.1%) 
  • Divided: 50 (8%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 301 (47.6%)
  • Republican: 266 (42.1%)
  • Bipartisan: 24 (3.8%)
  • Other: 41 (6.5%)