Welcome to Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia's Weekly Election Policy Digest. Every Tuesday, we deliver the latest updates on election policy around the country, including nationwide trends and recent legislative activity.
In this week’s edition, we cover 23 bills state legislatures acted on last week and look at a ban on foreign contributions to state and local ballot measure campaigns passed by the U.S. House.
The state of election legislation in the U.S.
Lawmakers in six states acted on 23 election-related bills last week. Eight state legislatures are in regular or special sessions. Last week, three bills were enacted, no bills passed both chambers of a state legislature, and no bills were vetoed.
Of the bills acted on last week, one (4.3%) is in a state with a Democratic trifecta, 13 (56.5%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and nine (39.1%) are in states with divided government. The most active bill categories last week were election types and stages (14), campaign finance (13), and election dates and deadlines (7).
We are currently tracking 4,616 election-related bills across the country. The chart below breaks down the status of those bills based on where they stand in the legislative process:
Enacted bills
Three bills were enacted or adopted last week:
Bills passing both chambers
No bills passed both chambers of a state legislature last week:
To see a full list of bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
Vetoed bills
No bills were vetoed this week:
To see a list of all bills vetoed this session, click here.
All bills
The chart below shows all bills Ballotpedia is currently tracking, broken down by partisan sponsor.
We are currently following 4,616 election-related bills, including bills carried over from the previous year.
-
Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,981 (42.9%)
- Republican: 1,648 (35.7%)
- Divided: 987 (21.4%)
-
Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 2,033 (44%)
- Republican: 1,871 (40.5%)
- Bipartisan: 442 (9.6%)
- Other: 270 (5.8%)
In the news
On July 16, Douglas County District Court Judge Carl Folsom III temporarily blocked the enforcement of a 2025 Kansas law that required mail-in ballots to be received by 7 p.m. on election day to be counted. Folsom’s order reverted the deadline to the three-day grace period set by prior law, which allowed mail-in ballots to be accepted if the ballots were postmarked by and received within three days of the election.
Following the ruling, Secretary of State Scott Schwab (R) said of the Aug. 4 statewide primary, “The primary election has started and ballots have gone out with the instructions of there not being a three-day grace period.” On July 17, Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) said that the state would file an emergency appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court. The state filed for a stay of the temporary injunction pending appeal the same day.
The Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Loud Light, and the Disability Rights Center of Kansas filed their initial complaint on May 5, 2025. The plaintiffs said that the new law would harm their “rights to equal protection, due process, and suffrage under the Kansas Constitution.”
Here are other news stories from across the country:
- On July 14 , the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap in Arizona agreed to a settlement regarding the division of elections responsibilities in the county. The parties agreed that Heap’s office will continue administering early voting operations and the county elections department, which the Board of Supervisors oversees, will continue administering emergency voting and voting on Election Day. On July 7, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld Heap’s legal challenge over the division of election procedure responsibilities. Heap and the Board of Supervisors issued a joint statement announcing the settlement.
- On July 13 , the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner (R) seeking access to the statewide voter registration list. The DOJ filed its complaint on Feb. 26. Judge Thomas Johnston said that neither the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) nor the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) automatically entitle the DOJ to access statewide voter registration lists and that the DOJ’s demand letter did not adequately explain its purpose. For a comprehensive list of federal lawsuits seeking access to statewide voter lists, click here .
- On July 17 , the Arizona Supreme Court issued a ruling removing the requirement for the secretary of state to allow for public comment on the state’s Elections Procedures Manual (EPM). The court’s opinion in Republican National Committee v. Fontes means that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is not required to have a thirty-day public comment period for the EPM. On Oct. 16, 2025, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the EPM is not subject to the rule-making procedures in the Arizona Administrative Procedures Act . On July 9 , the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona blocked a provision in the EPM that barred individuals at polling places from “wearing clothing, uniforms or official-looking apparel intended to deter, intimidate, or harass voters.”
Policy spotlight: U.S. House passes bill banning foreign contributions to state and local ballot measure campaigns
The story below is adapted from a recent Ballotpedia News story by Andrew Bahl.
On July 13, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation banning foreign nationals from contributing to state or local ballot measure campaigns.
Federal law currently prohibits federal, state, and local candidates from soliciting, accepting, or receiving contributions from individuals who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States. The law also bans contributions from foreign governments, political parties, corporations, organizations, or groups whose principal place of business is in a foreign country.
Federal courts, however, have established that the ban does not apply to issue advocacy, such as lobbying or spending in ballot measure campaigns. The Federal Election Commission has affirmed that under current federal law foreign individuals, corporations, and governments may contribute to ballot measure campaigns.
The bill, H.R. 3535, explicitly extends the prohibition on foreign national donations in state and local elections to include ballot measures, referenda, and recall elections.
U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R), Jared Golden (D), and Susie Lee (D) sponsored the legislation. The bill passed the U.S. House unanimously by a voice vote and now goes to the U.S. Senate for consideration.
“The ballot is the instrument by which a free people govern themselves,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “No foreign government, foreign national, or foreign interest should have a hand in deciding the laws Americans live under. Today’s unanimous vote is an important step in our broader bipartisan work to protect the integrity of our elections, preserve the sovereignty of the American voter, and strengthen public faith in self-government.”
While federal law currently allows foreign nationals to donate to ballot measure campaigns, some states have enacted their own prohibitions.
Twenty-five states have passed laws banning foreign nationals or governments from contributing to ballot measure campaigns. Seven states have enacted bans on direct contributions, while 18 states have banned direct and indirect contributions from foreign individuals or entities.
Thirty states have also enacted state-level prohibitions on foreign national donations to candidates, while two states, New Jersey and New York, have prohibitions on foreign nationals making independent expenditures.
In 2026, four states — Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, and New Hampshire — have enacted or expanded a prohibition on foreign national donations to ballot measure campaigns.
Arizona lawmakers approved a proposed constitutional amendment to ban foreign contributions for candidate and ballot measure elections. The amendment will be presented to voters in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election.
