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State of Election Administration Legislation 2023 Year-End Report: Tracking trends
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Absentee/mail-in voting • Early voting • Electoral systems • Voting rights for convicted felons • Private funding • Primary systems • Redistricting • Voter identification |
December 15, 2023
By Ballotpedia staff
Tracking trends
In June, we highlighted seven trends that had caught our attention in the first half of the year. Two of those, ranked-choice voting and the private funding of election administration, stood out in the back half of the year with three bills related to private funding, and four ranked-choice voting bills adopted since June. Each topic will be the subject of a legislatively referred statewide ballot measure in the upcoming year.
Find updates on these, and the other five mid-year trends below.
More RCV bills and bans considered in 2023 legislative sessions than previous years
State legislatures considered more than double the number of bills related to ranked-choice voting (RCV) in 2023 than the previous year.
Legislators considered 44 RCV related bills in 2022, compared to 113 this year. Seventy-nine of the 113 total bills introduced this year either allowed or required new uses of RCV. The number of measures prohibiting RCV has also doubled, from nine bans or repeals introduced in 2022 to 18 such bills this year.
Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota adopted new RCV bans—joining Florida and Tennessee, which were the first states to do so in 2022. Republican trifectas controlled all five of these states when these laws were passed. Similar Republican-sponsored bills advanced in other states, as well: Arizona HB2552 (vetoed), Montana HB598, North Dakota HB1273 (vetoed), and Texas SB921 (passed one chamber; died).
Republican lawmakers in Alaska and Maine, where ranked-choice voting has been implemented for some federal and state-level elections through statewide ballot measures, introduced legislation that would repeal RCV. As of Dec. 1, 2023, none of this legislation had advanced out of committee.
More bills introduced in 2023 than in 2022 that would make ballot access more difficult for political parties
| Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed Minnesota HF1830–an omnibus bill including a provision changing the major political party vote requirement from 5% to 8%–on May 24. According to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News, Minnesota’s requirement was one of the most difficult in the county, with 2% being the median requirement. Virginia and New Jersey have a 10% requirement, while Alabama’s is 20%. |
| Read more here. |
| Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed Maine LD769 on July 7. The bipartisan sponsored bill reduced the required number of voters, from 10,000 to 5,000, enrolled in a minor party for that party to be able to seek official party status. |
| Read more here. |
Lawmakers introduced more bills this year than last year that would make it more difficult for political parties to have their candidates placed on election ballots.
This year, we’ve tracked 39 party ballot access bills. Of those, we determined that 11 bills—introduced in Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas—would make it more difficult for parties to qualify for ballot access, while eight—in Arkansas, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, and West Virginia—would ease ballot access requirements for parties.
In 2022, we tracked 29 party ballot access bills. We determined that 17 would have eased ballot access requirements. Three bills, a set of companion bills in Iowa, would have increased requirements for non-party political organizations (political organizations not meeting the conditions to be a political party) to nominate a candidate at a nominating convention.
Nearly 100% increase in the number of bills introduced on the consolidation of election dates, and more states eye school board election changes
| Five states passed 10 bills consolidating election dates within a single year, whether in an even or odd year. In Idaho, H138 consolidated the presidential primary with the regular statewide primary. |
| Read more here. |
As of Dec. 1, 14 states were considering bills modifying school board election dates to coincide with other local or statewide elections, up from two in 2022, with Republicans sponsoring nearly every such bill in both years. North Carolina was the only state that eliminated some odd-year school board elections through legislation, doing so only in specific localities.
In total, state legislators introduced 58 bills that would consolidate permissible election dates. Consolidation election dates means moving off-cycle elections to coincide with other elections, whether from an odd to an even-year or within the same year. Eighteen such bills were introduced in 2022.
Fewer states considered new bans on the private funding of election administration than in 2022, but several states adopted new laws and amendments. Heading into 2023, 22 of the 28 states where the GOP controls both chambers of the legislature had already enacted such bills over the past two years. Three of the remaining six states enacted bans this year – Montana and North Carolina did so through legislation, while Louisiana voters approved a legislatively referred ballot measure.
Four other states – Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho and Oklahoma – amended their existing bans on the private funding of election administration, while Wisconsin lawmakers passed the second consideration of a constitutional amendment that would ban the private funding of elections. Wisconsin voters will decide on the amendment in 2024.
New ballot collection bills make mostly small changes, several states considering new restrictions and penalties
Eleven states considered legislation on ballot collection, or ballot harvesting, and three states enacted bills. In 2022, 15 states considered such bills, and bills in seven states were approved.
While most of the bills introduced this year would make minor changes to existing laws, some states are considering more substantial changes. Bipartisan bills in Rhode Island and Wyoming, two states that do not currently specify whether someone may return ballots on behalf of another voter, would have added restrictions to ballot collection. Republican-sponsored bills in three states, Nebraska, Oregon, and Virginia, that currently allow voters to choose someone to return their ballot, would have narrowed or limited the authorized individuals who may return another voter’s ballot.
Of the 22 states with a Republican trifecta, 11 states specify or otherwise limit who may return another voter’s absentee ballot, while four others do not have any law related to ballot collection. Of the 17 Democratic trifecta states, three specify or otherwise limit who may collect and return absentee ballots, while five states’ statutes do not reference ballot collection.
The most common topic of election-related legislation was contest-specific procedures, followed by ballot access, audits and oversight, voter registration and list maintenance, and election dates and deadlines.
- Contest-specific procedures include bills that deal with specific elections or types of election, such as special and municipal election procedures.
- Ballot access deals with procedures for accessing the ballot for candidates, parties, and ballot measures.
- Audits and oversight contains any legislation dealing with post-election audits, creating or modifying oversight authorities, poll observer training, and more.
- Voter registration and list maintenance includes bills that establish or modify processes for maintaining voter roll accuracy or deal with the voter registration process, including deadlines.
- Election dates and deadlines consist of any bill that changes an election date or that changes an administrative deadline.
Looking at the most commonly enacted bill topics, the list remains largely the same as that for introduced bills except for the substitution of counting and certification for election dates and deadlines.
Republican lawmakers led the way in total bills enacted in each of the top-five topics:
- Contest-specific procedures: Republican legislators sponsored 58 of the 108 adopted bills (53.7%), while Democratic legislators sponsored 25 bills (23.1%). Sixteen enacted bills (14.8%) had bipartisan sponsorship.
- Election dates and deadlines: Republican legislators sponsored 43 of the 94 enacted bills (45.7%), Democratic legislators sponsored 30 enacted bills (31.9%), and 17 enacted bills (18.1%%) had bipartisan sponsorship.
- Audits and oversight: Republican legislators sponsored 38 of the 87 approved bills (43.7%), Democratic legislators sponsored 26 (29.9%), and 13 enacted bills (14.9%) had bipartisan sponsorship.
- Ballot access: Republican legislators sponsored 33 of the 71 (46.5%) new acts, while Democratic legislators sponsored 16 of the enacted bills (8.5%), and 16 enacted bills also had bipartisan sponsorship.
- Counting and certification: Republican legislators sponsored 25 of the 52 enacted bills (48.1%), Democratic legislators sponsored 18 enacted bills (34.6%), and five enacted bills (9.6%) had bipartisan sponsorship.
State lawmakers introduced 167 voter list maintenance bills. Twenty-three became law and two were vetoed, both in Arizona. Of the 23 enacted bills, 16 became law in Republican trifecta states, four in Democratic trifectas, and three in states with divided government.
Included among voter list maintenance bills were efforts in Texas and Arizona to withdraw from participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). ERIC is a multi-state voter list maintenance compact created by seven states in 2012. At its height, 33 states were participating members in ERIC.
Legislators in Texas and Arizona passed bills that would effectively withdraw their respective states from ERIC. Election administrators in eight other states withdrew their states from ERIC this year, but the efforts to withdraw in Texas and Arizona were the only ones to originate from state legislation.
Of the two states, only Texas ultimately resigned after Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signed SB1070 into law on June 18. The bill included provisions that made compliance with ERIC's bylaws effectively impossible and directed the Texas Secretary of State to develop a new voter registration data-sharing compact, or find a new program with annual dues less than $100,000. Texas submitted its resignation from ERIC on July 20.
On May 26, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed SB1135, which would have withdrawn that state from ERIC.
Separately, Oklahoma, which is not currently a member of ERIC, enacted a bill in May permitting the state to join a multistate voter list maintenance organization, such as ERIC, but which included provisions that would effectively preclude Oklahoma from joining ERIC. Finally, California legislators are still considering a bill that would require the state to apply for ERIC membership.
Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker
State election laws are changing. Keeping track of the latest developments in all 50 states can seem like an impossible job.
Here's the solution: Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker.
Ballotpedia's Election Administration Tracker sets the industry standard for ease of use, flexibility, and raw power. But that's just the beginning of what it can do:
- Ballotpedia's election experts provide daily updates on bills and other relevant political developments.
- We translate complex bill text into easy-to-understand summaries written in everyday language.
- And because it's from Ballotpedia, our Tracker is guaranteed to be neutral, unbiased, and nonpartisan.
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
- Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker
- About Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker
- Voting laws in the United States
- Election Policy
