The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, June 27, 2025

By

Ballotpedia staff

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 105 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.

Weekly highlights

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

Lawmakers in 19 states acted on 105 bills over the last week, 40 fewer than last week. Twenty-two state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions. 

  • Forty-three bills were enacted this week. Ten bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 19 were enacted in 2023, and 11 were enacted in 2022.
  • Legislators acted on 48 bills in 2024 and 40 in 2023 during the same week. 
  • Thirty-nine of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 53 are in states with Republican trifectas, and 13 are in states with a divided government.  
  • The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (53), ballot access (21), and election dates and deadlines (16). 
  • We are currently following 4,585 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 2,614 bills.

In the news

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

  • On June 25, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed H0474, a bill prohibiting candidates defeated in primary elections from changing parties and running in the general election. The bill also changes deadlines for various state and local election procedures.
  • On June 25, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Orange County, California, alleging that county election officials withheld voter registration records the Department requested. The DOJ requested the records as part of an investigation into whether county officials failed to remove noncitizens from its voter registration rolls and violated the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
  • On June 23, the Wisconsin Elections Commission published new rules regarding the conduct of election observers at polling locations. The new rules include provisions specifying who is eligible to observe elections, when and where observers are allowed in polling places, and what election materials observers are allowed to see.
  • On June 22, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed SB2753, a bill requiring early voting to begin on the 12th day before Election Day and end on the day before the election, and to include weekends and holidays during the period. Previously, early voting began on the 17th day before an election and ended on the Friday before the election, and in-person early voting was not available on weekends. For elections occurring on the state’s regularly scheduled May election date and for runoff elections, early voting will start on the ninth day before Election Day.

Key movements

A look at what bills are moving and where. 

Forty-three bills were enacted in the past week. Ten bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 19 were enacted in 2023, and 11 were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.

  • Alaska (divided government)
  • Louisiana (Republican trifecta)

Twenty bills passed both chambers of state legislatures. To see the full list of all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.

  • Delaware (Democratic trifecta)
  • New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)
  • Ohio (Republican trifecta)
  • Wisconsin (divided government)

Three bills were vetoed in the past week. Sixty-two bills have been vetoed so far this year. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, no bills were vetoed in 2023, and one bill was 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

Forty-three 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 26 weeks of each year.

All bills

We are following 4,585 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year. 

  • Trifecta status
    • Democratic: 1,701 (37.1%)
    • Republican: 2,127 (46.4%) 
    • Divided: 757 (16.5%) 
  • Partisan sponsorship
    • Democratic: 1,753 (38.2%)
    • Republican: 2,220 (48.4%)
    • Bipartisan: 390 (8.5%)
    • Other: 222 (4.8%)

We were following 2,614 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

  • Trifecta status
    • Democratic: 1,351 (51.7%)
    • Republican: 868 (33.2%) 
    • Divided: 395 (15.1%) 
  • Partisan sponsorship
    • Democratic: 1,185 (45.3%)
    • Republican: 983 (37.6%)
    • Bipartisan: 303 (11.6%)
    • Other: 143 (5.5%)

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.