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 316 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week’s legislative actions.
Lawmakers in 30 states acted on 316 bills over the last week, 77 fewer than last week.
- Twenty-four bills were enacted this week. Fifty-one bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 19 bills were enacted in 2023, and three bills were enacted in 2022.
- Legislators acted on 196 bills in 2024, 166 in 2023, and 95 bills in 2022 during the same week.
- Ninety of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 184 are in states with Republican trifectas, and 42 are in states with a divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (97), campaign finance (67), and voter registration and list maintenance (39).
- We are currently following 4,450 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 2,515 bills.
In the news
A glance at what’s making headlines in the world of election law.
- On May 15, the Missouri House of Representatives passed SB152, a bill prohibiting foreign spending in state ballot measure elections. At least 15 states have passed laws prohibiting foreign nationals or governments from contributing to ballot measure committees.
- On May 12 and May 13, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed six election-related bills, including SB1097, which would have required public schools to close on primary and general election days and schools with gymnasiums to serve as polling places. Hobbs has vetoed 22 election-related bills so far this year, more than any other governor.
- On May 12, the Texas House of Representatives voted to send a constitutional amendment to voters on Nov. 4 that would add noncitizens to the list of persons not allowed to vote in the state after the same resolution was defeated during the state’s last legislative session in 2023. From 2020 to the present, 16 state legislatures have placed constitutional amendments on the ballot to require citizenship to vote in state and local elections.
- On May 12, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed SB001, also known as the Colorado Voting Rights Act. The bill codifies provisions from the federal Voting Right Act into state law and allows voters to file election-related discrimination lawsuits in state court.
- On May 12, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed SB158, a bill prohibiting foreign national driver’s licenses as a form of acceptable photo identification for voting. Previously, Alabama law did not specifically address this form of identification or whether it could be used for registration or voting purposes.
- On May 8, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed SB490, which changes the deadline for Election Day voter registration from 8 p.m. to noon. The bill also changes the deadline for early registration from the Monday before Election Day to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
Twenty-four bills were enacted in the past week. Twenty-five bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 13 bills were passed in 2023, and three bills were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.
- Alabama (Republican trifecta)
- Arizona (divided government)
- Colorado (Democratic trifecta)
- Delaware (Democratic trifecta)
- New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)
- Tennessee (Republican trifecta)
Twenty-four bills passed both chambers of state legislatures. To see the full list of all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
- Colorado (Democratic trifecta)
- Nebraska (Republican trifecta)
- Oklahoma (Republican trifecta)
- Tennessee (Republican trifecta)
Six bills were vetoed in the past week. Thirty-nine bills have been vetoed so far this year. Eleven bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, three bills were vetoed in 2023, and no bills were vetoed in 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
Twenty-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 20 weeks of each year.
All bills
We are following 4,450 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,641 (36.9%)
- Republican: 2,094 (47.1%)
- Divided: 715 (16.1%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,697 (38.1%)
- Republican: 2,170 (48.8%)
- Bipartisan: 360 (8.1%)
- Other: 223 (5%)
We were following 2,515 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,301 (51.7%)
- Republican: 847 (33.7%)
- Divided: 367 (14.6%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,134 (45.1%)
- Republican: 933 (37.1%)
- Bipartisan: 292 (11.6%)
- Other: 140 (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.
