The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, September 20, 2024

Nearly 60% of bills enacted this year have been in states with Republican trifectas.

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 10 bills state legislatures have acted on since our last edition.

Legislative highlights

• One bill was approved last week. Three hundred seventy-two bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 600 in 2023 and 216 in 2022.
• State legislatures acted on 10 bills this week, six more than last week.
• The top bill topics this week were:

1. Election types and contest-specific procedures (5)
2. Ballots and voting materials (3)
3. Election Day voting (3)

In the news

Here’s a rundown of recent news stories and developments from across the country on election administration.

• The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Sept. 19 dismissed a lawsuit seeking to prevent ballot envelopes with incorrect or missing dates from being disqualified. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit against Secretary of State Al Schmidt (R) in May.
• On Sept. 17, a U.S. district court judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a Minnesota law that prohibits the spread of disinformation about voting or elections. Minnesota Voters Alliance, a 501(c)(3) organization “focusing primarily on election integrity, research, voter education, and advocacy,” originally filed the lawsuit in September 2023.
• On Sept. 16, a Texas district court denied Attorney General Ken Paxton‘s (R) request for an injunction blocking Bexar County from sending voter registration forms through the mail.
• New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) signed a bill on Sept. 12 requiring voters to show a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers when voting for the first time. The bill will not go into effect until after the November election.

Recent activity

Enacted bills

One election-related bill has been approved since our last edition, compared to 11 bills in 2023 and no bills in 2022 during the same week. To see all enacted bills, click here.

New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)

• NH HB1569:

• Eliminates “a qualified voter affidavit” and “a sworn statement on the voter registration form used starting 30 days before an election and on election day” as eligible forms of proof of citizenship for voter registration.
• Eliminates references to a “qualified voter affidavit,” and removes exemptions for persons who cannot show acceptable proof of voting qualifications and the use of voter affidavits to vote.
• Repeals a requirement for voters without photo identification to complete a challenged voter affidavit if a person challenges their eligibility after an election official has verified their identity.
• Repeals a requirement for an election official to identify themselves in the voter checklist if that official “uses personal recognizance as a substitute for required documentation.”

Bills that passed both chambers

One bill has passed both chambers since our last edition. Click on individual bills for more information. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.

California (Democratic trifecta)

• CA AB544:

• Requires the secretary of state to operate a pilot grant program to provide grants to county election offices in San Benito, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz Counties to design, implement, and evaluate a program to improve voter participation in statewide primary and general elections from 2026 through 2028.
• The county elections office must administer grants to coordinate with county sheriffs or jail administrators to provide in-person voting to eligible incarcerated persons and may also provide in-person voting for eligible incarcerated persons for local and special 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 state

Of the 10 bills with activity over the previous week, nine (90%) were in states with Democratic trifectas, and one (10%) were in states with Republican trifectas.

The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.

All legislation

Enacted bills

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.

All bills

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.

The chart below shows election-related bills introduced by partisan sponsorship and trifecta status this year.