A Ballotpedia survey of all 50 state constitutions and administrative procedure acts (APAs) revealed that 12 state APAs include provisions that define what qualifies as a guidance document and the other 38 states do not have provisions in their APAs or constitutions defining guidance as of September 2020. Guidance is a term used to describe…
As of October 30, voters have cast at least 53.7 million absentee/mail-in ballots according to the New York Times. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia offer online ballot tracking for all voters. Texas and New York provide online ballot tracking only for military and overseas voters. Four states have no online ballot tracking at…
46.80% of all state legislators are Democrats and 52.07% are Republicans, according to Ballotpedia’s October partisan count of the 7,383 state legislators across the United States. Ballotpedia tallies the partisan balance of state legislatures at the end of every month. This refers to which political party holds the majority of seats in each chamber. Republicans…
Forty-four states and five United States territories—American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S Virgin Islands—are holding state legislative general elections on November 3, 2020. There are 5,904 seats up for regular election, and 15 seats up for special election, meaning 5,919 state legislative seats are on the ballot on November 3.…
Ballotpedia is covering 196 state executive seats across 29 states, Washington, D.C., and the five U.S. territories on November 3. Our coverage includes 13 governors, 10 lieutenant governors, 10 attorneys general, seven secretaries of state, and 156 down-ballot seats. There are 118 incumbents on the ballot, leaving 78 seats guaranteed to go to newcomers. Governors…
Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) appointed Todd Eddins to the Hawaii Supreme Court on October 23, 2020. Pending confirmation from the Hawaii State Senate, Eddins will succeed Justice Richard W. Pollack, who retired on June 30, 2020, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 years. Eddins is Ige’s first nominee to the five-member supreme…
The chief organizer behind an effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) told supporters on Monday that the effort had failed to collect enough signatures to require a recall election. Chief organizer Misty Polewczynski wrote in a Facebook post about the failed recall effort on October 26, “It is with a heavy heart we…
On October 22, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court decided Goral v. Dart, a case on police officers’ right to due process to claim backpay. The case concerned a decision regarding the legitimacy of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s Merit Board. The Illinois Supreme Court upheld an appellate court’s decision which determined that officers suspended without…
All 60 seats in the Arizona House of Representatives are up for election in 2020. Republicans lost seats but maintained their majority in the 2018 elections for the Arizona House of Representatives, winning 31 seats to Democrats’ 29. Arizona state representatives serve two-year terms, with all seats up for election every two years. Thirty multi-member…
On Oct. 20, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced that he was appointing Angelica Allen-McMillan as the New Jersey commissioner of education. She will replace outgoing interim Commissioner Kevin Dehmer, who had served since the resignation of Lamont Repollet on July 1. Allen-McMillan will serve in an acting capacity until her confirmation by the…