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 27 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 27 bills over the last week, 14 fewer than last week. Ten state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions.
- Six bills were enacted this week. Nine were enacted during the same week in 2024, three were enacted in 2023, and 13 were enacted in 2022.
- Legislators acted on 13 bills in 2024 and 48 in 2023 during the same week.
- Sixteen of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, four are in states with Republican trifectas, and seven are in states with a divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (21), offices (4), ballot verification (2), and campaign finance (2).
- We are currently following 4,814 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 3,103 bills.
In the news
A glance at what’s making headlines in the world of election law.
- On Sept. 25, the U.S. Department of Justice filed lawsuits against six states—California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania—for refusing to provide the department with voter registration information, a week after filing lawsuits against Oregon and Maine for the same reason. The lawsuits allege that refusing to provide the data violates the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Civil Rights Act. State officials have expressed privacy concerns and questioned the legal basis for the requests.
- On Sept. 25, a Michigan House of Representatives committee voted to advance a bill allowing the Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) to investigate allegations of campaign finance violations against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D). The bill now heads to the House floor for a vote.
- On Sept. 24, Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R) and Senate President Warren Petersen (R) filed a brief with the Arizona Supreme Court in support of the Republican National Committee, the Republican Party of Arizona, and the Yavapai County Republican Party, plaintiffs in Republican National Committee v. Fontes. The brief, like the original lawsuit, argues that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) must adhere to Arizona’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA) when drafting the state’s Elections Procedures Manual (EPM).
- On Sept. 23, a U.S. district court judge in Florida dismissed a lawsuit challenging the state’s enforcement of a law requiring election officials to verify voters’ registration with their driver’s license or Social Security numbers. Judge Wendy Berger, a Donald Trump (R) appointee, said “the challenged protocol is a state mandate, which obligates all Florida Supervisors of Elections to execute portions of the Matching Protocol.”
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
Six bills were enacted in the past week. Nine bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, three were enacted in 2023, and 13 were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.
- California (Democratic trifecta)
Eight bills passed both chambers of a state legislature. To see the full list of all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
- Massachusetts (Democratic trifecta)]
No bills were vetoed in the past week. Seventy 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.
The big picture
Zooming out to see the macro-level trends in election policy so far this year.
Enacted bills
Six 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 39 weeks of each year.
All bills
We are following 4,814 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,779 (36.9%)
- Republican: 2,242 (46.6%)
- Divided: 793 (16.5%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,856 (38.6%)
- Republican: 2,331 (48.4%)
- Bipartisan: 402 (8.4%)
- Other: 224 (4.7%)
We were following 3,103 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,573 (50.7%)
- Republican: 1,054 (34%)
- Divided: 476 (15.3%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,422 (45.8%)
- Republican: 1,153 (37.2%)
- Bipartisan: 350 (11.3%)
- Other: 178 (5.7%)
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.
