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State of Election Administration Legislation 2024 Year-End Report: By the numbers
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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 12, 2024
By Ballotpedia staff
By the numbers
Introduced bills
Ballotpedia tracked 3,820 election-related bills in 2024, more than 2023. For the third year in a row, states with Democratic trifectas considered more changes to election laws than states with Republican trifectas or divided governments, but Republican trifectas adopted more new laws.
New laws
States adopted 396 new election laws, less than 2023 but more than in 2022, and states with Republican trifectas
Continuing a multi-year trend, bills with bipartisan sponsorship were the most likely to pass in 2024, regardless of topic or state, with 23.4% of considered bills ultimately becoming law. The highest rate of adoption was in states with Republican trifectas where lawmakers enacted bipartisan bills40% of the time, the highest of any type of bill in any trifecta status. The next highest rate of adoption for another type of bill was 19.2% for Republican sponsored bills in states with Republican trifectas.
In total, Republican sponsored legislation was more than twice as likely to become law (12.2%) as Democratic legislation (5.9%), similar to the rate of passage in the last two years.
For the third year in a row, states with Republican trifectas enacted election legislation at a higher rate (16.2% of all introduced bills, 222 bills) than states with Democratic trifectas (6.6%, 118). States with divided governments have adopted 8.5% of election bills (56) this year. That is despite three states with Republican trifectas — Texas, Montana, and North Dakota — not holding a session this year. One other state — Nevada, which had a divided government — also does not convene during even years.
Most active states
Tennessee was the most active state, adopting 36 new laws, followed by Louisiana with 35. Both states had Republican trifectas. The most active states with Democratic trifectas were Rhode Island, with 20 and 19 new laws, respectively. Virginia adopted the most bills, 25, out of any state with a divided government.
When comparing the number of bills passed in each state, it is important to note that each state legislature operates under a different set of rules and procedures that affect the number of bills passed each session. The number of bills a legislature passes does not necessarily indicate a level of productivity, or even the extent of laws that are added, amended, or repealed.
In 2024, for example, Massachusetts was one of the most active states with a Democratic trifecta by the number of election-related bills passed, but all 14 bills adopted in the state only made changes to local election procedures in specific jurisdictions in the state. Minnesota, another Democratic trifecta in 2024, passed just one bill into law but changed multiple areas of state election law through that piece of legislation.
Among Republican trifectas this year, a similar dynamic could be seen between South Carolina, where all but one of the 14 adopted bills only modified specific local elections, and Iowa, where lawmakers passed just one bill but changed state laws related to several aspects of elections.
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.
Ballotpedia Editor in Chief Geoff Pallay reviewed the report and provided feedback, as did Managing Editor Cory Eucalitto and Marquee Team Lead Janie Valentine.
See also
- Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker
- About Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker
- Voting laws in the United States
- Election Policy
