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 235 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week's legislative actions.
Lawmakers in 28 states acted on 235 bills over the last week, 216 more than last week. Thirty-four state legislatures are in regular or special sessions.
- Two bills were enacted this week. Four bills were enacted during the same week in 2025, four bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, and one bill was enacted during the same week in 2023.
- Legislators acted on 79 bills in 2025 and 120 bills in 2024 during the same week.
- One hundred and twenty-one of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 97 are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 17 are in states with divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (116), campaign finance (75), and voter registration and list maintenance (48).
- We are actively reviewing newly filed bills as legislative activity ramps up for 2026. The numbers in this newsletter include 2,458 bills filed as of Jan. 11, including 1,913 bills carried over from 2025 sessions.
In the news
A glance at what's making headlines in the world of election law.
- On Jan. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that candidates could sue over election laws they believe to be unconstitutional before voting begins. The decision allows U.S. Rep. Michael Bost (R) to proceed with a lawsuit he brought in 2022 challenging an Illinois law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted up to 14 days afterward.
- On Jan. 14, the Virginia House of Delegates voted to advance a proposed constitutional amendment for the second time that would allow the state to redraw its congressional maps in the next four years if another state were to engage in mid-decade redistricting. If the Virginia Senate approves, the amendment will be presented to voters in an April special election. In Virginia, a constitutional amendment must be passed in two consecutive sessions of the legislature before being presented to voters. The Virginia House also approved a second constitutional amendment that would automatically restore voting rights to individuals convicted of a felony once they are released from prison. That amendment was also approved last session and will be submitted to voters if passed by the state Senate.
- On Jan. 14, a panel of three federal judges ruled 2-1 that California could use a redrawn congressional map that aims to net five additional Democratic districts in the 2026 midterm elections. The California Republican Party and a group of GOP voters and candidates filed a lawsuit challenging the new districts shortly after voters approved Proposition 50 in the November election. The plaintiffs said they would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- On Jan. 14, a U.S. district court judge said he would dismiss a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit that is seeking to obtain Oregon’s unredacted statewide voter registration list. The DOJ has filed similar lawsuits against 23 states and Washington, D.C., arguing it has a right to access the information under federal law. On Jan. 15, a different federal judge dismissed a similar lawsuit seeking voter registration data from California.
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
Two bills were enacted in the past week. Four bills were enacted during the same week in 2025, four bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, and one bill was enacted during the same week in 2023. 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.
- Maine (Democratic trifecta)
No bills were vetoed in the past week. No bills have been vetoed so far this year. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2025, 2024, and 2023. 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
All bills
We are following 2,458 election-related bills as of Jan. 11, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,153 (47%)
- Republican: 768 (31.2%)
- Divided: 537 (21.8%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,191 (48.5%)
- Republican: 941 (38.3%)
- Bipartisan: 220 (9%)
- Other: 106 (4.3%)
We were following 1,476 bills at this point in 2024. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 823 (55.8%)
- Republican: 447 (30.3%)
- Divided: 206 (14%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 702 (47.6%)
- Republican: 654 (44.3%)
- Bipartisan: 98 (6.6%)
- Other: 22 (1.5%)
See the charts below for a comparison of total bills between 2024 and 2026 and a breakdown of all 2026 legislation by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
