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State of Election Administration Legislation, April 2024 Roundup
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Absentee/mail-in voting • Early voting • Electoral systems • Voting rights for convicted felons • Private funding • Primary systems • Redistricting • Voter identification |
April 26, 2024
Welcome to the State of Election Administration Legislation April 2024 Roundup. This monthly report looks at election-related activity from all active state legislatures, diving into the busiest states and the most consequential issues with an eye toward how policymakers are changing election administration in their states.
As of April 26, more than 2,800 election-related bills are active in state legislatures. Lawmakers have adopted 175 new election laws this year, and governors have vetoed 23 bills. In total, lawmakers have considered more than 3,500 election-related bills this year.
Dig into more election-law takeaways from the first four months of the year below. All figures are as of April 26, 2024, unless otherwise stated. We will release our next monthly update in May before the release of the mid-year report in June.
Click the following links to navigate through this month's report:
- New laws
- What else is moving and where?
- Overview of introduced legislation
- Topics of note
- Methodology
New laws
Lawmakers have adopted 175 new election laws so far this year—including 113 new bills since our March Roundup—as the calendar progresses to the heart of many states’ legislative sessions.
This is fewer bills than were adopted during the same period last year (207 bills in 33 states), but more than during the same period in the last even year (102 bills in 31 states).
States with Republican trifectas are adopting new election laws at a nearly 3-to-1 pace compared to states with Democratic trifectas. Lawmakers in states with Republican trifectas have enacted 94 election-related bills across 14 states, while 12 states with Democratic trifectas have approved 35. Five states with divided governments have adopted 46 new laws.
In 2023, Republican trifecta states approved 142 bills in the same period, while Democratic trifecta states passed 34 and states with divided governments passed 31.
During the same period in 2022, states with Republican trifectas passed 52 bills compared to 25 adopted bills in both states with Democratic trifecta and states with divided governments.
Of the 175 bills passed this year, 30 had Democratic sponsorship, and 87 had Republican sponsorship. Thirty-five bills had bipartisan sponsorship, and the remaining 23 bills were introduced without partisan sponsorship.
Frequent topics of newly adopted laws are Municipal election procedures (40 bills), Vacancy procedures (21), Ballot access for candidates (20), Elections in specific jurisdictions (20), Offices up for election (15), and Enforcement against non-officials (13).
Enacted bills
Of the more than 100 bills adopted since our last monthly report, several make noteworthy changes, while others make small changes to election statutes. Notable bills include those that change how voters vote or how officials administer elections, as well as bills related to national election policy debates. Notable bills adopted since our last monthly report include:
- Mississippi’s SB 2576 - Adds new definition of valid identification for the purposes of voting to the state’s existing voter ID requirement. It stipulates that an ID used for voting must be a government-issued document without an expiration date, or issued within 10 years.
- Nebraska’s LB 20 - Changes the timeline for restoring voting rights to people convicted of a felony by removing a two-year waiting period after the completion of a sentence before rights are restored. Under the new law, voting rights are restored to an individual convicted of a felony immediately upon the completion of their sentence, including prison time, parole, and probation. This bill became law without the signature of Gov. Jim Pillen (R).
- Maryland’s SB 480 - The Protecting Election Officials Act of 2024 creates new penalties for knowingly and willfully threatening an election official or election official’s family members. The penalties include up to three years in prison and a fine of not more than $2500.
- Washington’s SB 5890 - Adds new requirements for election officials to contact voters to correct or cure an unsigned ballot, including contacting the voter by telephone or email when possible. The bill also requires the secretary of state to adopt and regularly review statewide standards for ballot signature verification and creates new community outreach in each county about signature verification laws.
- Idaho’s HB 599 - Defines who may collect and return another voter’s absentee ballot. The new law permits voter’s family members, roommates, caregivers, or someone paid directly by the voter to collect and return their ballot. Other than an individual paid directly by a voter to collect and return their ballot, no other individual authorized under the new law to do so may collect or return more than six ballots. The law explicitly prohibits candidates or political party employees or volunteers from collecting and returning voters’ ballots and provides for misdemeanor and felony penalties for violations. Previously, Idaho did not specify who could collect and return another voter’s ballot.
- Virginia’s HB 111 - Requires presidential electors to vote for the nominee of the national convention to which the state convention elects delegates. Any delegate who refuses to do so, or refuses to cast a marked ballot, is considered to have violated their oath and vacated their position as a presidential elector. The remaining electors may fill the vacancy.
- Maine’s LD 1578 - Makes Maine the 17th state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) and conditionally establishes the use of RCV for presidential elections if the compact comes into effect. With Maine joining, members of the compact now represent 209 Electoral College votes from 17 states and D.C.
To read more about notable enacted bills from earlier in the year, see previous editions of the Roundup here.
Vetoes and veto overrides
In addition to newly enacted laws, 23 election bills have been successfully vetoed. Twenty-two of these vetoes came from a governor in one of four states with divided government: Arizona, Kansas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Three of the bills adopted this year were enacted after successful veto override votes in Kentucky, a state with divided government.
The number of vetoes year-to-date in 2024 is more than double the number of vetoes during the same period in 2022 and 2023.
Notable vetoes include:
- Virginia’s SB 606 - Would have required the state to apply for membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Virginia was a founding member of ERIC in 2012 but withdrew from the multi-state voter list maintenance compact in 2023.
- Mississippi’s HB 922 - The only vetoed bill not from a state with divided government, would have made the office of Election Commissioner a nonpartisan elected office. Under current law, candidates for election commissioner must declare their party affiliation and appear on the ballot with a party designation.
- Kansas’ HB 2618 - Would have prohibited a governmental agency or election official from accepting or spending funds from the federal government on any aspect of elections, including voter assistance and voter registration, except as specifically provided for in appropriations acts or state law.
- Arizona’s SB 1097 - Would have created partisan elections for school boards.
- Wisconsin’s AB 570 - Would have changed multiple areas of election law, mainly related to absentee/mail-in ballot administration. Among these changes, the bill would have altered provisions related to absentee voting in retirement homes or residential care facilities, including requiring that voting deputies have access to these facilities and specifying that election clerks may designate an employee to assist voters in these facilities during a public health emergency.
In Kentucky, the legislature successfully overrode the veto of Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on three bills: HB 44, which makes the state the sixth to prohibit ranked-choice voting (RCV), HB 622, which requires special elections rather than gubernatorial appointment in the case of a vacancy for a U.S. Senate seat, and HB 388, which changes the required number of petition signatures for the incorporation of a city and makes the election of several local offices, including mayor and city council, nonpartisan in a consolidated local government.
Kentucky law requires a simple majority in both chambers to override a veto. Kentucky is one of four states where one party has a veto-proof majority in the legislature but a governor from the opposite party.
What else is moving and where?
Seventy-seven other election bills have passed two legislative chambers and await gubernatorial action. Most of these bills (52) are in states with Republican trifectas. Another 277 bills have passed one chamber.
Notable bills that have passed two chambers include:
- Georgia's SB 189 - Includes multiple changes to election law, including requiring voters without a permanent address to register to vote at the county registrar’s office, providing that a political party may qualify for the presidential ballot if it already has gained access to the ballot in at least 20 states or territories, and specifying grounds for challenging voters’ eligibility.
- Oklahoma’s HB 3156 - Bans ranked-choice voting and other related electoral systems.
- Virginia’s SB 300 - Requires the creation of rules and standards to ensure the security of the state and county-level voter registration systems and requires that these standards be updated annually. Also creates new record-matching protocols for voter list maintenance.
- Maryland’s SB 417 - Creates new evaluation requirements for election officials, including an annual evaluation of the State Administrator of Elections by the State Board of Elections. Requires the State Administrator to evaluate each local election board director at least annually.
Overview of introduced legislation
There are 2,842 election-related bills currently active in state legislatures, including enacted bills. More than half of these bills are in states with Democratic trifectas.
There are 23 Republican trifectas, 17 Democratic trifectas, and 10 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control.
The most common topic among active bills is Municipal election procedures (298), followed by Voter registration (273 bills), Ballot access for candidates (221), and In-person voting and polling places (195). To learn more about Ballotpedia’s election-related legislation topic categories, see here.
Topics of note
Ballotpedia is paying close attention to several topics of note, including legislation related to ranked-choice voting (RCV), the private funding of election administration, and signature verification laws.
Below are updates on these topics. Be on the lookout for future updates on these, and other topics as sessions progress.
Ranked-choice voting
Bills to ban the use of RCV continue to progress in Republican-controlled legislatures. As noted above, Kentucky became the sixth state to ban RCV after the Republican-controlled legislature overrode a veto of HB 44. Oklahoma is poised to follow suit in banning RCV as HB 3156 awaits Gov. Kevin Sitt’s (R) signature. Bills to ban the use of RCV have passed one chamber in six other states, all but one of them Republican trifectas.
Only one bill expanding the use of RCV has become law this year, Maine’s LD 1578, which conditionally establishes the use of RCV for presidential elections if the NPVIC comes into effect.
Although RCV bans are progressing at a higher rate than new authorizations of RCV, there are more bills to expand the use of RCV still active in state legislative sessions. Fifty-six bills still under consideration would expand the use of RCV, while 28 bills would prohibit RCV.
Private funding of election administration
Three states, all of which already prohibit the use of private funding for election administration, have advanced bills amending their bans.
Indiana’s HB 1264, which was signed into law on March 11, added a new provision prohibiting a political subdivision from participating in a program or joining the membership of an organization that has directly financed the conduct, preparation, or administration of elections or which employs people on a temporary basis for these purposes.
Bills in Arizona (SB 1347) and Oklahoma (HB 3294) add similar language to these state’s existing prohibitions. Both bills have passed one chamber.
One state, Wisconsin, has adopted a new prohibition on the private funding of election administration this year. On April 2, voters approved Question 1, the Prohibition on Non-Governmental Funding of Elections Amendment, with 54.43% voting in favor. The ballot measure was a legislatively referred constitutional amendment and brought the number of states with laws banning the private funding of election administration to 28. All of these bans were adopted in the last four years.
Signature verification
Three states have enacted four new laws related to signature verification.
- Arizona’s HB 2785 - Newly requires that signature verification be conducted for all ballots (except for certain early ballots) and changes the deadline to verify signatures on provisional ballots to five days (instead of 10) after a federal election and three days (instead of five) after all other elections.
- Indiana’s HB 1265 - Allows a voter to deliver a signature verification affidavit to an absentee voter board during the early voting period, among other changes.
- Washington’s SB 6269 - Establishes a pilot program for alternative voter verification methods to be administered by the secretary of state. Counties’ applications must include a description of current verification methods, information about how new verification methods will be implemented, and at which elections the county plans to implement the new methods. As noted above, Washington also enacted SB 5890, which requires the secretary of state to adopt and regularly review statewide standards for ballot signature verification.
Methodology
This report leverages Ballotpedia’s Election Administration Legislation Tracker to deliver insights on the changing landscape of election administration. We continually improve our tracking and tagging systems and, as such, year-on-year comparisons do not necessarily account for changes made to the tracker’s layout and infrastructure.
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