One bill was approved last week, bringing the total number of enacted bills in 2024 to 372. This is compared to 600 bills in 2023 and 216 in 2022. State legislatures took action on 10 bills this week, which is six more than the previous week.
The top bill topics this week were related to election types and contest-specific procedures (5 bills), ballots and voting materials (3 bills), and Election Day voting (3 bills).
Recent developments in election administration across the country are as follows:
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently made a decision to dismiss a lawsuit that aimed to prevent ballot envelopes with incorrect or missing dates from being disqualified.
In Minnesota, a U.S. district court judge dismissed a lawsuit that sought to overturn a law prohibiting the spread of disinformation about voting or elections.
In Texas, a district court denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request for an injunction to block Bexar County from sending voter registration forms through the mail.
Furthermore, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill that now requires voters to show a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers when voting for the first time.
Since the last edition, one election-related bill has been approved. This is compared to 11 bills in 2023 and none in 2022 during the same week.
New Hampshire enacted a bill that made several changes related to voter registration and proof of citizenship requirements.
In California, a bill was passed that requires the secretary of state to operate a pilot grant program to improve voter participation in certain counties and provide in-person voting for eligible incarcerated persons.
There have been no gubernatorial vetoes since the last edition.
Of the 10 bills with activity over the previous week, nine (90%) were in states with Democratic trifectas, and one (10%) was in a state with a Republican trifecta.
The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.
States have enacted 372 bills so far this year, compared to 600 bills in 2023 and 216 in 2022. The chart below shows the number of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Ninety-eight of the election-related bills passed this year (26.3%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 222 (59.7%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 52 (14%) are in states with a divided government. The chart below shows enacted election-related bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,768 (46.7%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,370 (36.2%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 645 (17.1%) 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.
Produced in association with Ballotpedia
