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 25 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week’s legislative actions.
Lawmakers in five states acted on 25 bills over the last week, five more than last week. Eight state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions.
- No bills were enacted this week. None were enacted during the same week in 2024, three were enacted in 2023, and none were enacted during the same week in 2022.
- Legislators acted on six bills in 2024 and 55 bills in 2023 during the same week.
- Seven of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, one is in a state with a Republican trifecta, and 17 are in states with a divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were voters and voter qualifications (5), voter registration and list maintenance (4), and absentee/mail-in voting (4).
- We are currently following 4,882 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 3,150 bills.
In the news
A glance at what’s making headlines in the world of election law.
- On Oct. 22, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed S249, redrawing the state’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts on a 66-49 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor, all Democrats against, and six members absent. On Oct. 21, the North Carolina Senate passed the bill 26-20, also along party lines, with one Republican senator absent. Under the state constitution, Gov. Josh Stein (D) cannot veto the bill.
- On Oct. 22, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Patti James ruled that Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) must move up a special election to replace state Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R), who died on September 2, 2025. A voter in the district filed the lawsuit following Huckabee Sanders’ decision to schedule the election to replace Stubblefield for June 2026.
- On Oct. 20, four groups filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana seeking to block the implementation of a 2024 law requiring state officials to compare the state’s voter rolls with an Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles database and identify voters who are not citizens. The lawsuit also challenges a second statute, approved earlier this year, that requires a notice seeking proof of citizenship to be sent to any individuals who register to vote with an identification number from a temporary driver’s license.
- On Oct. 17, groups supporting two ballot measures that would make Montana judicial elections nonpartisan filed two lawsuits against Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R). The lawsuits challenge wording Knudsen added to the ballot language for one of the measures and seek to overturn his decision blocking the groups from moving forward with a third measure.
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
No bills were enacted in the past week. No bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, three were enacted in 2023, and none were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.
One bill passed both chambers of a state legislature. To see the full list of all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
- Wisconsin (divided government)
No bills were vetoed in the past week. Seventy-one 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
No 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 43 weeks of each year.
All bills
We are following 4,882 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,791 (36.7%)
- Republican: 2,258 (46.3%)
- Divided: 833 (17%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,899 (38.9%)
- Republican: 2,348 (48.1%)
- Bipartisan: 409 (8.4%)
- Other: 226 (4.6%)
We were following 3,150 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,585 (50.3%)
- Republican: 1,060 (33.7%)
- Divided: 505 (16%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,450 (46%)
- Republican: 1,166 (37%)
- Bipartisan: 356 (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.
