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The Ballot Bulletin: August 23, 2024
Twenty-eight of the 29 bills active over the past week were in states with Democratic trifectas
Welcome to The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest on Election Administration. Every Friday, we deliver the latest updates on election policy around the country, including nationwide trends and recent legislative activity.
In this week’s Ballot Bulletin, we cover 29 bills state legislatures acted on since our last edition.
Legislative highlights
- No bills have been approved since our last edition. Three hundred sixty-four bills have been enacted so far in 2024, compared to 581 in 2023 and 215 in 2022.
- State legislatures acted on 29 bills this week, two fewer than last week.
- Democrats sponsored 22 (75.9%) of the bills active over the past week. Five (17.2%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship, and two (6.9%) bills were sponsored by nonpartisan legislators or committees.
- Twenty-eight (96.6%) of the bills active over the past week were in states with Democratic trifectas, and one (3.4%) bill was in a state with a Republican trifecta.
- Twenty-six bills passed one or both chambers or were enacted during the past week, and all of those were in states with a Democratic trifecta. Of those, Democrats sponsored 20.
- Five state legislatures are still in session: California, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
- The top bill topics this week were:
- Election types and contest-specific procedures (13)
- Election dates and deadlines (7)
- Audits and oversight (5)
- Redistricting (5)
- Ballots and voting materials (3)
- Counting and certification (3)
- Voter registration and list maintenance (3)
Recent activity
Enacted bills
No election-related bills have been approved since our last edition, compared to two in 2023 and three in 2022 during the same week. To see all enacted bills, click here.
Bills that passed both chambers
Three bills have passed both chambers since our last edition. To see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
California (Democratic trifecta)
- CA SB863: Measures proposed by the Legislature.
- CA AB453: District-based elections.
- CA SB1514: Local Government Omnibus Act of 2024.
Vetoed bills
There have been no gubernatorial vetoes since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023, and none were vetoed in 2022. Governors have vetoed 32 bills so far this year, compared to 37 at this point in 2023 and 17 at this point in 2022. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
Recent activity by topic and sponsorship
The chart below shows the topics and partisan sponsorship of the bills with legislative activity over the past week. Click here to see a full list of bill categories and their definitions.
* Note: Contest-specific procedures refer to primary systems, municipal election procedures, recall elections, special election procedures, and other systems unique to a particular election type.
Recent activity by state and trifecta status
Of the 29 bills with activity over the previous week, 28 (96.6%) were in states with Democratic trifectas, and one (3.4%) bill was in a state with a Republican trifecta.
The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.
All legislation
Enacted bills by sponsorship and trifecta status
States have enacted 364 bills so far this year, compared to 581 bills in 2023 and 215 in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Ninety-one of the election-related bills passed this year (25%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 221 (60.7%) are in states with a Republican trifecta, and 52 (14.3%) are in states with a divided government. The table below shows the number of enacted election-related bills introduced by trifecta status this year compared to 2023 and 2022.
All bills by topic and sponsorship
The chart below displays the topic and sponsorship of a sample of the 3,783 total bills we’ve followed this year. Note that the sums of the numbers listed do not equal the total number of bills because some bills deal with multiple topics.
All bills by sponsorship and trifecta status
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,148 (30%) are Democrat-sponsored bills in Democratic trifecta states. Republicans sponsored 799 (21%) bills in states with Republican trifectas.
The chart below shows the percentage of all election-related bills by sponsorship and trifecta status.
All bills by state and trifecta status
Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,768 (46.7%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 1,370 (36.2%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 645 (17.1%) are in states with divided governments.
Of all active bills in 2023, 42% were in states with Democratic trifectas, 43.8% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 14.2% were in states with divided governments. In 2022, 37.8% of bills were in states with Democratic trifectas, 30.4% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 31.8% were in states with divided governments.
The map below shows the number of election-related bills introduced by state and trifecta status this year.
