The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, August 16, 2024

Democrats sponsored 25 of the 31 bills active over the past week.

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 31 bills state legislatures acted on since our last edition.

Legislative highlights

• One bill has been approved since our last edition. Three hundred sixty-four bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 579 in 2023 and 212 in 2022.
• State legislatures acted on 31 bills this week, 21 more than last week.
• Democrats sponsored 25 (80.6%) of the bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored one (3.2%) bill. Four (12.9%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship, and one (3.2%) bill was sponsored by a committee.
• Thirty (96.8%) of the bills active over the past week were in states with Democratic trifectas, and one (3.2%) bill was in a state with a Republican trifecta.
• Thirty-one bills passed one or both chambers or were enacted during the past week.
• Five state legislatures are still in session: California, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
• The top bill topics this week were:

• Election types and contest-specific procedures (14)
• Election dates and deadlines (6)
• Audits and oversight (3)
• Ballot access (2)
• Voter registration and list maintenance (2)
• Voting security (2)

Recent activity

Enacted bills

One election-related bill has been approved since our last edition, compared to four in 2023 and two in 2022 during the same week. To see all enacted bills, click here.

New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)

• NH HB1313: Relative to access to the voter checklist by candidates.

• This bill permits election officials to provide electronic copies of voter registration records of a town or city to the public free of charge. The first request for an electronic copy is free of charge per election before a fee of up to $25 is charged for another request, and any request for a paper copy costs $25.

Bills that passed both chambers

One bill has passed both chambers since our last edition. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.

California (Democratic trifecta)

• CA AB453: District-based elections.

Vetoed bills

There have been no gubernatorial vetoes since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023, and none were vetoed in 2022. Governors have vetoed 32 bills so far this year, compared to 37 at this point in 2023 and 17 at this point 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 over the past week. 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 31 bills with activity over the previous week, 30 (96.8%) were in states with Democratic trifectas, and one (3.2%) bill 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.

All legislation

Enacted bills by sponsorship and trifecta status

States have enacted 364 bills so far this year, compared to 579 bills in 2023 and 212 in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.

Ninety-one of the election-related bills passed this year (25%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 221 (60.7%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 52 (14.3%) are in states 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 3,778 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 sponsorship and trifecta status

Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,147 (30%) are Democrat-sponsored bills in Democratic trifecta states. Republicans sponsored 799 (21%) bills in states with Republican trifectas.

The chart below shows the percentage of all election-related bills by sponsorship and trifecta status.

All bills by state and trifecta status

Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,766 (46.7%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,367 (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.

The map below shows the number of election-related bills introduced by state and trifecta status this year.