The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration, July 19, 2024

Of the 52 bills acted on this week, 39 were in Massachusetts.

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 52 bills state legislatures acted on since our last edition.

Legislative highlights

• Five bills have been approved since our last edition. Three hundred forty-eight bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 561 in 2023 and 200 in 2022.
• State legislatures acted on 52 bills this week, four more than last week.

• Democrats sponsored 38 (73.1%) of the bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored 10 (19.2%) bills. Four (7.7%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship.
• Forty-nine (94.2%) of the bills active over the past week were in states with Democratic trifectas, two (3.8%) were in states with Republican trifectas, and one (1.9%) was in a state with a divided government.
• Five bills passed one or both chambers or were enacted during the past two weeks. Two were in Democratic trifectas, and of those, Democrats sponsored one. Two were in states with a Republican trifecta and both were Republican-sponsored.
• The top bill topics this week were:

1. Election types and contest-specific procedures (29)
2. Voters and voter qualifications (16)
3. Election dates and deadlines (9)
4. Alternative voting methods (7)
5. Ballot access (7)
6. Voter registration and list maintenance (7)

Recent activity

Enacted bills

States approved five election-related bills since our last edition, compared to 10 in 2023 and two in 2022 during the same week. To see all enacted bills, click here.

California (Democratic trifecta)

• CA AB2582: Elections omnibus bill.
• CA AB3197: Elections.

New Hampshire (Republican trifecta)

• NH SB576: Relative to reporting the death of voters.
• NH SB489: Relative to election audits.

• This bill directs the secretary of state to conduct an audit of ballot tabulation devices after each state primary, presidential primary, and general elections and provides for the auditing protocols.

North Carolina (divided government)

• NC S607: Regulatory Reform Act of 2024

Bills that passed both chambers

No bills have passed both chambers since our last edition and await gubernatorial action. To see all bills that have currently passed both chambers, click here.

Vetoed bills

There have been no gubernatorial vetoes since our last edition. Three 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 52 bills with activity over the previous week, 49 (94.2%) were in states with Democratic trifectas, two (3.8%) were in states with Republican trifectas, and one (1.9%) was in a state with a divided government.

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 348 bills so far this year, compared to 561 bills in 2023 and 200 in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.

Seventy-seven of the election-related bills passed this year (22.1%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 216 (62.1%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 55 (15.8%) 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 3,761 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, 1,143 (30%) are Democrat-sponsored bills in Democratic trifecta states. Republicans sponsored 798 (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, 1,761 (46.8%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,357 (36.1%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 643 (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.