The Ballot Bulletin: January 9, 2026
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 19 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week's legislative actions.
Lawmakers in 10 states acted on 19 bills over the last week, five more than last week. Sixteen state legislatures are in regular or special sessions.
- No bills were enacted this week. No bills were enacted during the same week in 2025, 2024, or 2023.
- Legislators acted on 38 bills in 2025 and 50 bills in 2024 during the same week.
- Four of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, four are in states with a Republican trifecta, and two are in states with divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (9), voter registration and list maintenance (5), ballots and voting materials (5), ballot access (4), and election dates and deadlines (4).
- We are actively reviewing newly filed bills as legislative activity ramps up for 2026. The numbers in this newsletter include 2,216 bills filed as of Jan. 2, including 1,913 bills carried over from 2025 sessions.
In the news
A glance at what's making headlines in the world of election law.
- On Jan. 7, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 190-148 to approve HB 323, which would remove college and high school identification cards from the list of acceptable IDs for voting purposes. Five Democrats and 185 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, and all 148 members voting in opposition were Democrats. The bill now moves to the New Hampshire Senate for consideration.
- On Jan. 7, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced he would call a special session on mid-decade redistricting in April. The special session would take place following the Florida Legislature’s regular session, which begins on Jan. 13. Florida could be the fifth state to voluntarily draw new congressional maps ahead of the 2026 elections if legislators approve new districts.
- On Jan. 6, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Arizona and Connecticut to obtain their statewide voter registration lists. The lawsuits allege that the U.S. Attorney General is entitled to have access to the lists under the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act. The DOJ has filed similar lawsuits against 21 other states and the District of Columbia. Thirteen of those states have Democratic trifectas, two states have Republican trifectas, and six states have divided government.
- On Dec. 30, the Dallas County, Texas Republican Party announced it would contract with local election officials to use voting equipment for the March 3 primary. The party had previously said it planned to count primary ballots by hand, but Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Allen West told Votebeat that officials could not find enough personnel to make the plan feasible.
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
No bills were enacted in the past week. No bills were enacted during the same week in 2025, 2024, or 2023. To see all enacted bills, click here.
No bills passed both chambers of a state legislature. To see the full list of all bills awaiting
gubernatorial action, click here.
No bills were vetoed in the past week. No bills have been vetoed so far this year. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2025, 2024, and 2023. To see all vetoed bills, click here.
The big picture
Zooming out to see the macro-level trends in election policy so far this year.
Enacted bills
With the new year just underway, and most state legislative sessions just getting started, there are no new enactments to report. In the weeks ahead, the chart below will show how the number of bills approved this year compares to previous years.
All bills
We are following 2,216 election-related bills as of Jan. 2, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,043 (47.1%)
- Republican: 634 (28.6%)
- Divided: 539 (24.3%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,061 (47.9%)
- Republican: 866 (39.1%)
- Bipartisan: 214 (9.7%)
- Other: 75 (3.4%)
We were following 1,445 bills at this point in 2024. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 972 (67.3%)
- Republican: 253 (17.5%)
- Divided: 220 (15.2%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 790 (54.7%)
- Republican: 448 (31%)
- Bipartisan: 121 (8.4%)
- Other: 86 (6%)
See the charts below for a comparison of total bills between 2024 and 2026 and a breakdown of all 2026 legislation by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
