ICYMI: Top stories of the week

Learn about our newest tool – The Administrative State Legislation Tracker – on the latest episode of On the Ballot

On this week’s episode of On the Ballot, Ballotpedia’s weekly podcast, Editor in Chief Geoff Pallay interviews Policy Team Writer Annelise Reinwald about Ballotpedia’s newest tool: The Administrative State Legislation Tracker.

Pallay and Reinwald first establish what the administrative state is: the phenomenon where executive branch administrative agencies exercise the power to create, adjudicate, and enforce their own rules. They note that the tracker is the first of its kind — tracking administrative state activity in all 50 states — and houses more than 500 bills.

Deep dive into understanding campaign finance regulation differences for candidate elections vs. ballot measures

On June 2, Ohio Gov. Mark DeWine (R) signed OH HB1, a bill prohibiting foreign nationals from donating to ballot measure campaigns. This makes Ohio the ninth state to ban such donations. In Tuesday’s Brew, we looked at the federal and state campaign finance rules for ballot measures and how they differ from those for candidate elections.

Three South Dakota counties to decide on ballot measures to require the hand-counting of ballots and banning automatic vote counting machines

Voters in three South Dakota counties decided on June 4 whether to prohibit the use of automatic vote counting machines and require the hand-counting of ballots. All three measures were defeated. Petitions to ban automatic vote-counting systems are circulating in another 34 of the state’s 66 counties.

Forty-five states—including South Dakota—use paper ballots, and local officials are allowed to count votes using automatic vote counting machines or systems. Four states—Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, and South Carolina—use ballot-marking devices and systems (BMDs) for all voters. One state—Louisiana—uses direct recording electronic (DRE) systems without Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) printers.

Lowest number of Maine state legislative retirements since 2016

Maine will hold its primaries on June 11. All 35 seats are up for election in the Maine Senate, and all 151 seats are up for election in the Maine House of Representatives. Democrats have a 22-13 majority in the Maine Senate and a 79-68 majority in the Maine House of Representatives, with one Independent, one Independent for Maine Party member, and two vacancies. The number of open seats up for election is the lowest since 2016.

The state will also hold primaries for U.S. Senate and U.S. House.