State of Election Administration Legislation, May 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 |
Click here and see below to access more recent versions of this report:
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2025 Mid-Year Report
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2025 Spring Report
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2024 Year-End Report
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2024 Mid-Year Report
May 29, 2024
Welcome to the State of Election Administration Legislation May 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.
Forty states have enacted nearly 300 new laws as many legislative sessions come to a close, including 109 since last month. Some key takeaways are:
- States with Republican trifectas have adopted more Republican-sponsored legislation than all bills adopted by states with Democratic trifectas and divided governments combined.
- Lawmakers have been focused on local elections, with 18% of all new laws changing election procedures in specific jurisdictions only.
- Maryland adopted a law creating a portal for reporting what the state defines as election misinformation and disinformation.
- In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves (R) vetoed a bill that would have made county election commissioner a nonpartisan office.
- Three Republican trifectas banned ranked-choice voting, and more may follow suit.
Click the following links to navigate through this month's report:
- Enacted legislation and trifecta activity
- Notable new laws
- Vetoes
- What else is moving and where?
- Methodology
Click here to see all editions of this report, or see below for recent editions:
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2025 Mid-Year Report
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2025 Spring Report
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2024 Year-End Report
- State of Election Administration Legislation 2024 Mid-Year Report
Overview
State legislatures have considered more than 3,500 election-related bills and adopted 284 new election laws in 2024. As of May 24, 28 states have adjourned for the year, barring any future special sessions, while 17 states are in session and one state is in recess. Four states do not hold even-year legislative sessions.
Below are election administration stories from May. All figures are as of May 24, 2024, unless otherwise stated. In June, Ballotpedia will release the Election Administration Legislation Mid-Year Report with observations and analysis of activity from the first half of the year.
Enacted legislation and trifecta activity
Lawmakers have adopted 284 new election laws across 40 states so far this year.
This is fewer bills than were adopted during the same period last year (356 bills in 41 states), but more than during the same period in the last even year (130 bills in 34 states).
States with Republican trifectas continue to adopt legislation at a higher rate than Democratic trifectas and states with divided government. Lawmakers in states with Republican trifectas have enacted 176 election-related bills across 18 states, while 13 states with Democratic trifectas have approved 58. Six states with divided governments have adopted 50 new laws.
The rate of newly adopted laws by each trifecta mirrors that for the same period in 2023 and 2022.
During the same period in 2023, Republican trifecta states approved 257 bills while Democratic trifecta states passed 54 and states with divided governments passed 45. In 2022, states with Republican trifectas passed 73 bills compared to 26 adopted bills in states with Democratic trifectas and 31 bills in states with divided governments.
Across all three years, states with Republican trifectas have adopted 91.7% more bills than states with Democratic trifectas and divided governments combined.
Of the 284 bills passed this year, 49 had Democratic sponsorship, and 148 had Republican sponsorship. Fifty-eight bills had bipartisan sponsorship, and the remaining 29 bills were introduced without partisan sponsorship.
Frequent topics of newly adopted laws are Municipal election procedures (61 bills), Elections in specific jurisdictions (51), Vacancy procedures (39), Offices up for election (37), Ballot access for candidates (28), Election dates (21), and Administrative deadlines (21).
To learn more about Ballotpedia’s election-related legislation topic categories, see here.
Notable new laws
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:
- Connecticut’s HB 5498 - An omnibus bill that makes changes to several areas of election laws, including requiring video monitoring of absentee ballot drop boxes, providing for the tracking of absentee ballot receipt methods, and eliminating a rule that if a permanent absentee voter does not return a written notice confirming absentee status within 60 days, they will be removed from the permanent absentee list. The bill has bipartisan sponsorship and passed both legislative chambers unanimously.
- Minnesota’s HF 4772 - The Minnesota Voting Rights Act, this omnibus bill makes changes to a number areas of election law, including codifying prohibitions on discrimination in voting on the basis of race, color, or language into state law; providing that inmates will be counted as residents of their home jurisdictions rather than of the jurisdiction where they are incarcerated beginning with the 2030 census; and, allowing for the establishment of temporary voting locations on postsecondary institution campuses. The bill passed along partisan lines, with all Democrats supporting the legislation and all Republicans opposing.
- Mississippi’s HB 1406 and Oklahoma’s HB 1629 - Two bills related to voting access for inmates or individuals convicted of a felony. Mississippi’s new law allows inmates that are not confined for an offense that disqualifies someone from voting to request and vote an absentee ballot. Oklahoma’s bill allows individuals convicted of a felony to regain the right to vote immediately upon receiving a pardon or a commutation reducing their sentence, including parole or probation, regardless of the sentence length or terms of their original conviction. Oklahoma previously restored voting rights to people convicted of a felony after completion of their entire sentence. But individuals who received a pardon or commutation were ineligible to register or vote until completing their sentence under the original conviction. Both bills received bipartisan support.
- Alabama’s HB 100 and Georgia’s HB 1207 - Two bills that create or increase penalties making threats against election workers. Alabama’s bill increases penalties for crimes committed against an election official, and adds such a crime to the list of offenses for which a convicted individual never regains the right to vote. Georgia’s bill adds election officials and poll watchers to existing law prohibiting violence or threats of violence against poll officers. Both bills had bipartisan support.
- Georgia’s SB 189 - An omnibus bill that makes changes to multiple areas of election law, including removing the secretary of state from the state election board, allowing election officials to remove a voter from registration rolls up to 45 days before an election, requiring all absentee ballots to be counted by one hour after the close of polls on election day, and adding a new definition of probable cause for a voter registration challenge. The bill received mostly Republican support. For more on this legislation, see here.
- Maryland’s HB 333 - This bill creates an online portal for the public to report election misinformation and disinformation. It defines disinformation as "knowingly and deliberately disseminated," and misinformation as "incorrect or misleading information regarding the time, place, or manner of an election, election results, or voting rights in the state." The bill requires the state board of elections to review submissions, issue corrective information, or refer cases for prosecution and provides for criminal penalties.
- Three Republican trifectas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, banned ranked-choice voting (RCV), bringing the total number of states with RCV prohibitions to nine. With these new laws, more states have banned RCV in 2024 than in any other year. A fourth state, Louisiana, advanced a prohibition on RCV to Gov. Jeff Landry (R) on May 21. For more on these bills, see here and here.
To read more about notable enacted bills from earlier in the year, see previous editions of the Roundup here.
Vetoes
Thirty-four election-related bills have been vetoed in 2024. All but one of these vetoes came from a governor in 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 2023 and 2022.
Notable vetoes include:
- In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves (R) vetoed HB 922, the only veto not from a state with divided government. The bill that would have made county election commissioners a nonpartisan office, instead of a partisan elected office. The bill passed the Legislature with bipartisan support. In a veto message, Reeves said that the bill would have violated the First Amendment rights of political parties and concluded: “(w)hile I do not believe it was the intention of the members of the Mississippi Legislature who voted in favor of House Bill 922 to infringe upon the constitutional rights of political parties, I am compelled to veto House Bill 922 to protect such fundamental rights and avoid the litigation it will inevitably generate.”
- In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed HB 2618, a bill that would prohibit 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 provided for in appropriations acts or in state law. About the veto, Kelly said, “there is no reason to potentially restrict the use of federal funds for election purposes. Kansas is already one of the lowest-ranking states for use of utilizing federal funding. Accepting these dollars helps Kansas ensure smooth administration of our elections.” The bill initially passed largely along party lines with most Republicans supporting passage. A vote to override the veto passed the House but failed to reach the required two-thirds threshold in the Senate.
- In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a set of bills related to voter list maintenance, including SB 300 / HB 904. The bill included a number of changes to voter registration procedures and systems in the state, including requiring that the state make records of canceled voter registrations available to the public, and mandating that an audit of voter list maintenance activities be included in an annual report from the Department of Elections to the General Assembly. It also required the state board of elections to create rules and standards to ensure the security of state and county voter registration systems. In his veto message, Youngkin said: “To be clear, elections in Virginia remain safe and secure. While I agree with the general purpose of addressing these list maintenance practices, the General Assembly did not approve my amendments, which would have allowed a workgroup to properly study and make recommendations regarding voter registration and list maintenance.” The bills passed the General Assembly along party lines with Democrats supporting passage.
- In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed several election bills, including SB 98 and SB 736. SB 98 would have required the state transportation department to provide the state elections commission access to personally identifiable information in order to verify that individuals on the voter registration list are U.S. citizens. SB 736 added new post-election audit requirements, including that certain audits be conducted in public. The bill would have permitted audit observers to observe the audit of election materials from “not less than 3 feet from nor more than 8 feet.” In his veto message of SB 736, Evers said: “Wisconsin state law already provides robust protections to ensure that our elections are safe, fair, and secure, including requiring post-election audits overseen by the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission that are more comprehensive and expansive than the process created and overseen by the Legislature under this bill.” On May 14, the Wisconsin Senate voted to override Ever’s veto of both bills along party lines, with Republicans supporting an override. They await action in the lower chamber.
For more notable vetoes and veto overrides in 2024, see our April Roundup.
What else is moving and where?
Thirty-one other active election bills have passed two legislative chambers and await gubernatorial action. Eighteen of these bills are in states with Republican trifectas, eleven are in states with Democratic trifectas, and two are in states with divided government.
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.
Be on the lookout for Ballotpedia’s State of Election Administration Legislation Mid-Year Report next month. The mid-year Roundup will take a deeper look at trends and stories from election legislation and provide updates on issues Ballotpedia has been tracking closely in the first half of the year.
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