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State of Election Administration Legislation 2025 Mid-Year Report: Topics of note
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Absentee/mail-in voting • Early voting • Electoral systems • Voting rights for convicted felons • Private funding • Primary systems • Redistricting • Voter identification |
August 26, 2025
By Ballotpedia staff
Topics of note
Absentee/mail-in voting
Lawmakers in 20 states have adopted 37 bills and resolutions related to absentee/mail-in voting, more than all of 2024 (18 states, 31 bills and resolutions) but less than in 2023 as of the same date (25, 48). Lawmakers have made changes to various aspects of the absentee/mail-in voting process, with particular emphasis on the details of requesting, returning, and processing ballots.
Lawmakers in three states adopted bills that eliminate counting of late-arriving ballots, and two states passed bills that require voters to submit additional information with their returned ballot.
In Kansas, where Republicans have a veto proof supermajority in the Legislature, lawmakers overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto of SB 4, which established an Election Day deadline for officials to receive mailed ballots. Under a 2017 law passed with bipartisan support, ballots were valid if they were postmarked by Election Day and received within three days of Election Day. SB 4 stipulates that any ballot an election official receives after 7 p.m. on Election Day will not be counted. All Democrats in the Legislature opposed the measure and voted against the override.
In Utah, a Republican trifecta, Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed HB 300, ending the state’s all- mail voting system and requiring voters to request a mail-in ballot beginning in 2029. The bill also requires voters to return ballots by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Previously, a ballot was eligible if postmarked by Election Day and received before the start of the canvass. Read more about this bill below.
In North Dakota, Gov. Kelly Armstrong (R) signed HB 1165, creating a deadline for voters to return absentee/mail-in ballots by the close of polls on Election Day. Previously, state law permitted election officials to count ballots postmarked by the day before Election Day and received at any point after. The Republican-sponsored bill passed the North Dakota Senate and North Dakota House of Representatives largely along party lines.
With the three new laws, 34 states now require absentee/mail-in ballots to arrive by Election Day, and one state, Louisiana, requires that they arrive earlier. In the remaining 15 states, deadlines vary. In two states where law permits the counting of late arriving ballots—Mississippi and Texas— a Fifth Circuit of Appeals ruling currently blocks election officials from doing so. Read more about that ongoing case here.
On March 25, 2025, President Donald Trump (R) issued an executive order that, among other things, prohibited states from counting ballots received after Election Day. On June 13, Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts temporarily blocked certain sections of the order, including the Election Day ballot receipt requirement. The U.S. Department of Justice appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on July 31.
Minnesota, which has a divided government, also changed its receipt deadline for some ballots when Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed S 3045 on May 23. The bill makes a number of changes to absentee voting laws, including:
- Requiring that ballot processing must occur on every day that a voting location receives completed ballots
- Requiring absentee ballot applicants to provide an ID number and the last four digits of their Social Security number—instead of either—or otherwise attest that they do not have another identification.
- Updating ballot opening and chain of custody procedures, including requiring officials to verify the number of envelopes and the number of ballots are equal at various points.
- Moving up the deadline to return an absentee ballot in person from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Election Day.
The bill—which combined election changes with appropriations—received unanimous Democratic support in the Legislature. Republicans split their votes—49-18 in favor in the state’s House of Representatives and 31-2 against in the Senate.
Other new laws in states with Republican trifectas include:
- Indiana’s HB 1679, which requires election officials to publish absentee activity reports by 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. on Election Day. It allows a voter to request a replacement absentee ballot by email if election officials determine their original ballot is defective and order a correction. The legislation also makes a number of changes to election laws apart from the absentee/mail-in voting process. Three Democrats in the state’s Senate joined all Republicans who voted in the Legislature to pass the bill.
- In Montana, HB 719 requires clerks to verify the signature and date of birth on the absentee ballot signature envelope against a voter’s registration or absentee ballot request form.
- New Hampshire’s SB 287, requiring voters requesting an absentee ballot to include a photocopy of a valid photo identification or a notarized signature with the absentee ballot application. Voters may also present photo identification at a town clerk’s office to request an absentee ballot. Also in New Hampshire, SB 218 requires voter registration applicants using the state’s absentee registration affidavit to provide a photocopy of a valid identification and documentation verifying the voter’s citizenship and residence.
New laws elsewhere include:
- Nevada’s AB 148 specifies that election officials must mail ballots to voters between the fourth and fifth Monday before an election instead of no later than 20 days before an election. It also requires election officials to mail each voter a sample ballot ahead of their regular ballot.
- New York’s S 752 clarifies drop box rules, specifying that drop boxes may be used for early and absentee ballots, requiring election officials to close drop boxes at the close of polls on Election Day, and ensuring that ballots deposited before that time are required to be counted.
- Rhode Island’s H 5709 extends eligibility for the state’s permanent absentee voter list to any voter, instead of only those with disabilities or confined to a nursing home and replaces the affidavit to apply for the list with an application form.
Governors have vetoed more absentee/mail-in related bills so far this year than all of last year and 2023 as of the same date. All but one of this year’s vetoes came from a governor in a state with divided government.
In Arizona, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed three bills related to mail voting:
- SB 1001 would have required voters returning a mailed ballot after 7 p.m. on the Friday before an election to provide ID. Under current law, voters do not need to provide identification. But, beginning in 2026, they will have the option to show ID and provide a signature when dropping off a mailed ballot in person in lieu of their ballot undergoing signature verification. The bill would also have eliminated the state’s “emergency voting” period in the three days before an election and extended early voting to include these days.
- SB 1098 would have required anyone dropping off a mailed ballot at an early voting location to provide photo identification. It also required anyone delivering another voter’s ballot to attest in writing that they are the voter’s family member, household member, or caregiver.
- SB 2703 would have required voters dropping off a mailed ballot at voting locations after 7 p.m. on the Friday before an election to provide ID and would have required voters on the permanent mail voter list to confirm their address within two or four years of an election, depending on the size of the county in which the voter resides.
In Nevada and Virginia, Republican governors vetoed five bills that Democratic-controlled legislatures passed, including:
- SB 760 in Virginia, which would have moved back the deadline to return absentee ballots and to submit identification for provisional voters from noon on the third day after an election to 5 p.m. on that day.
- AB 534 in Nevada, which would have required election officials to begin processing mail ballots beginning 15 days before an election and would have required officials to process each ballot within 24 hours of receipt. Current law authorizes but does not require processing to begin on the 15th day before the election.
- AB 499, also in Nevada, would have expanded the availability of mail ballot drop boxes and required a minimum of at least 10 drop boxes in counties with populations of 700,000 or more and at least five in counties with between 100,000 and 699,999 people.
Click here to see all bills related to absentee/mail-in voting.
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.
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About the authors
Joe Greaney is a staff writer on Ballotpedia's Law Team.
Ballotpedia Managing Editor Janie Valentine reviewed the report and provided feedback, as did Senior Editor Norm Leahy Associate Director of Features 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
