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 15 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week’s legislative actions.
Lawmakers in six states acted on 15 bills over the last week, 22 fewer than last week. Nine state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions.
- Four bills were enacted this week. Four bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, four were enacted in 2023, and two were enacted in 2022.
- Legislators acted on 31 bills in 2024 and 15 in 2023 during the same week.
- Six of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, six are in states with Republican trifectas, and three are in states with a divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (9), voter registration and list maintenance (3), and counting and certification (3).
- We are currently following 4,705 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 2,892 bills.
In the news
A glance at what’s making headlines in the world of election law.
- On Aug. 14, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced legislation calling for a Nov. 4 special election on a constitutional amendment to redraw the state’s congressional district map.The legislation also included “a bill that established the new congressional map that could be triggered to take effect under the proposed constitutional amendment if other states engage in redistricting” and “a bill authorizing reimbursement of costs to administer the election.” Newsom said California’s redrawing of congressional districts was in response to congressional redistricting efforts in Texas and said, “We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country.”
- On Aug. 10, seven Michigan residents filed a lawsuit seeking to compel Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to call a special election for Michigan state Senate District 35. The seat, last represented by Kristen McDonald Rivet (D), has been vacant since January. Read more here.
- On Aug. 8, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed AB87, a bill that would have added new conditions for restoring voting rights to individuals disqualified due to a criminal conviction. In addition to completing their term of imprisonment or probation, individuals would have had to first pay all fines, costs, fees, surcharges, and restitution and complete any court-ordered community service related to their sentence.
- On Aug. 7, the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit challenging Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s (D) official guidance for overseas voters. The court’s order said the lawsuit was focused “exclusively on obtaining relief in advance of the 2024 election, which has since come and gone and been certified.”
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
Four bills were enacted in the past week. Ten bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, five were enacted in 2023, and none were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.
- Oregon (Democratic trifecta)
No bills passed both chambers of a state legislature. To see the full list of all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
One bill was vetoed in the past week. Sixty-six bills have been vetoed so far this year. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, 2023, or 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
- Wisconsin (divided government)
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 33 weeks of each year.
All bills
We are following 4,705 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,754 (37.3%)
- Republican: 2,172 (46.2%)
- Divided: 779 (16.6%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,807 (38.4%)
- Republican: 2,273 (48.3%)
- Bipartisan: 403 (8.6%)
- Other: 222 (4.7%)
We were following 2,892 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,518 (52.5%)
- Republican: 942 (32.6%)
- Divided: 432 (14.9%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,333 (46.1%)
- Republican: 1,063 (36.7%)
- Bipartisan: 328 (11.3%)
- Other: 168 (5.8%)
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.
