States have enacted 13 bills so far this year, compared to seven bills in 2023 and 16 bills in 2022.
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, legislative activity, and updates on notable lawsuits and policy changes.
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Legislative highlights
- Five bills have been approved since our last edition. Thirteen bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to seven in 2023 and 16 in 2022.
- State legislatures acted on 404 bills this week, 39 more than last week.
- Democrats sponsored 148 (36.6%) of the bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored 187 (46.3%) bills. Thirty-four (8.4%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship. Thirty-five (8.7%) bills had sponsors other than Democrats or Republicans, such as nonpartisan lawmakers or committee sponsorship.
- One hundred fourteen (28.2%) bills are in states with Democratic trifectas, 150 (37.1%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 140 (34.7%) are in states with a divided government.
- Ninety-two bills passed one or both chambers this week. Nine were in Democratic trifectas, and of those, Democrats sponsored six. Thirty-four were in Republican trifectas, and of those, Republicans sponsored 21.
- The top five bill topics this week were:
- Election types and contest-specific procedures (94)
- Voter registration and list maintenance (49)
- Alternative voting methods (48)
- Ballot access (34)
- Election dates and deadlines (34)
Recent activity
Enacted bills
States approved five election-related bills since our last edition, compared to two in 2023 and four in 2022 during the same period. To see all enacted bills, click here.
Nebraska (Republican trifecta)
- NE LB299: Require approval by the voters of a school district or educational service unit for the issuance of certain bonds under the Interlocal Cooperation Act
Massachusetts (Democratic trifecta)
- MA S2547: Amending the charter of the city of Westfield
- MA S2524: Changing the position of town clerk in the town of Wenham from an elected position to an appointed position
South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
- SD SB19: Rescind rulemaking authority pertaining to the process for publishing required voter registration numbers.
- SD SB21: Rescind rule-making authority for the annual report of the number of voters removed from a county’s voter registration list.
Bills that passed both chambers
One bill passed both chambers since our last edition and is awaiting gubernatorial action. To see all bills that have currently passed both chambers, click here.
Wisconsin (divided government)
- WI SB488: Legislative redistricting.
Vetoed bills
There have been no gubernatorial vetoes since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023 or in 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
Recent activity by topic and sponsorship
The chart below shows the topics and partisan sponsorship of the bills with legislative activity since our last edition. Click here to see a full list of bill categories and their definitions.
* Note: Contest-specific procedures refer to primary systems, municipal election procedures, recall elections, special election procedures, and other systems unique to a particular election type.
Recent activity by state and trifecta status
Of the 404 bills with activity this week, 114 (28.2%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 150 (37.1%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 140 (34.7%) are in states with a divided government.
The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.
All legislation
Enacted bills by sponsorship and trifecta status
States have enacted 13 bills so far this year, compared to seven bills in 2023 and 16 bills in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Six of the election-related bills passed this year (46.2%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, Six (46.2%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and one (7.7%) is in a state with a divided government. The table below shows the number of enacted election-related bills introduced by trifecta status this year compared to 2023 and 2022.
All bills by topic and sponsorship
The chart below displays the topic and sponsorship of a sample of the 2,946 total bills we’ve followed this year. Note that the sums of the numbers listed do not equal the total number of bills because some bills deal with multiple topics.
All bills by state and trifecta status
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,397 (48.1%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 993 (33.2%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 556 (18.7%) are in states with divided governments.
Of all active bills in 2023, 42% were in states with Democratic trifectas, 43.8% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 14.2% were in states with divided governments. In 2022, 37.8% of bills were in states with Democratic trifectas, 30.4% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 31.8% were in states with divided governments.
The map below shows the number of election-related bills introduced by state and trifecta status this year.
