State of Election Administration Legislation 2023 Year-End Report: Executive summary

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State of Election Administration Legislation
2023 Year-End Report

Executive summaryAbout the tracker and methodologyTracking trendsSpecific policy subsetsRanked-choice votingPrivate funding bansElection audits and qualifications for auditorsPhoto ID requirements for in-person and absentee votingNoncitizen voting

More on 2023 election administration legislation
Enacted bills
Absentee/mail-in votingEarly votingElectoral systemsVoting rights for convicted felonsPrivate fundingPrimary systemsRedistrictingVoter identification

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December 15, 2023
By Ballotpedia staff

Executive summary

State legislators introduce thousands of bills each year affecting the way Americans vote and how our elections are governed. This report provides a neutral and authoritative summary of that activity.

In 2023, legislative sessions saw a 25% increase in total election-related legislation across the country from last year. Republican lawmakers (1,406 bills) introduced slightly more legislation than Democratic (1,351) legislators this year, while on a per-legislator basis, Democratic lawmakers were more likely to introduce an election-related bill than Republicans. Democrats hold 44.3% of state legislative seats nationwide and introduced 0.41 bills per legislator, while Republicans hold 54.5% of seats and introduced 0.35 bills per legislator.

While both Democratic and Republican trifectas adopted more new laws in 2023 than in 2022, Republican-sponsored legislation (13%) was more likely to advance to enactment than Democratic-sponsored legislation (9.1%). These numbers are similar to last year when Republicans (9.8%) passed a greater portion of introduced bills than Democrats did (7%). The rate of adoption of bipartisan-sponsored legislation was significantly higher than partisan legislation in both years, at 23.1% this year and 17% in 2022.

In June, we told you about notable 2023 legislative activity across several policy areas, including ranked-choice voting, private funding bans, election audits, photo ID requirements for voting, and noncitizen voting. Since the publication of that report, lawmakers have continued to adopt new laws in these areas, particularly related to ranked-choice voting and the funding of election administration.

We also highlighted that Republican trifecta states had approved significantly more legislation than their Democratic counterparts by mid-year. Since June, that gap has closed, but Republican controlled states still lead their Democratic, and divided government counterparts. The average Republican trifecta enacted 9.4 bills this year, Democratic trifectas averaged 7.8 new laws, while states with divided governments adopted just 4.4 bills on average.

By the numbers

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Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker

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About the authors

Joe Greaney is a staff writer on Ballotpedia's Marquee Team.

Janie Valentine is a team lead on Ballotpedia's Marquee Team.

Ballotpedia Editor in Chief Geoff Pallay reviewed the report and provided feedback, as did Managing Editor Cory Eucalitto.

See also