The Ballot Bulletin: March 3, 2026
Welcome to Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia's Weekly Election Policy Digest. Every Tuesday, we deliver the latest updates on election policy around the country, including nationwide trends and recent legislative activity.
In this week’s edition, we cover 430 bills state legislatures acted on in the last week and look at trends in ranked-choice voting legislation across the U.S.
The state of election legislation in the U.S.
Lawmakers in 37 states acted on 430 election-related bills over the past week. Forty-one state legislatures are in regular or special sessions. In the last week, six bills were enacted, 24 bills passed both chambers of a state legislature, and no bills were vetoed.
Of the bills acted on this week, 168 (39.1%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 183 (42.6%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 79 (18.4%) are in states with divided government. The most active bill categories this week were campaign finance (96), voter registration and list maintenance (87), and election types and stages (79).
Ballotpedia is currently tracking 3,675 election-related bills across the country. We are actively processing bills filed since Feb. 14 as legislative activity increases for 2026.
The chart below breaks down the status of those 3,675 bills by where they stand in the legislative process:
Note: In some states, legislators can file hundreds of bills per day. We are actively reviewing those bills to determine their relevance to election administration. As a result, during this period of heightened legislative activity, the newsletter may not yet account for all relevant bills introduced in 2026.
Enacted bills
Six bills were enacted this week. They are:
- Indiana (Republican trifecta)
- South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
- Tennessee (Republican trifecta)
- Wyoming (Republican trifecta)
Bills passing both chambers
On Feb. 25, the Ohio House passed SB 63 with amendments. The Ohio Senate passed the measure in May 2025 and will need to vote on the bill again before it can be sent to Gov. Mike DeWine (R). The bill bans the use of RCV in any elections in the state and requires the state to withhold Local Government Fund distributions to municipalities that attempt to authorize the use of RCV. If DeWine signs the bill, Ohio will become the 20th state to prohibit ranked-choice voting. Read more here about state laws related to ranked-choice voting across the United States.
23 other bills passed both chambers this week. They are:
- Alabama (Republican trifecta)
- Florida (Republican trifecta)
- Indiana (Republican trifecta)
- Maine (Democratic trifecta)
- South Dakota (Republican trifecta)
- Utah (Republican trifecta)
- Virginia (Democratic trifecta)
- West Virginia (Republican trifecta)
- Wyoming (Republican trifecta)
To see a full list of bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.
Vetoed bills
No other election-related bills we are following were vetoed in the past week. For a list of all vetoed bills, click here.
All bills
The chart below shows all bills Ballotpedia is currently tracking, broken down by partisan sponsorship:
We are currently following 3,675 election-related bills, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,646 (44.79%)
- Republican: 1,303 (35.46%)
- Divided: 726 (19.76%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,650 (44.9%)
- Republican: 1,508 (41.03%)
- Bipartisan: 321 (8.73%)
- Other: 196 (5.33%)
In the news
A glance at what's making headlines in the world of election policy:
- On March 2, the U.S. Supreme Court paused a lower court ruling requiring New York’s 11th Congressional District to be redrawn. Opponents of the existing district contended that its configuration discriminated against Black and Latino voters on Staten Island. The district’s current representative, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R), defended the existing map.
- On March 2, the Missouri Senate Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee held a hearing on SB 986. The bill would require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. Under the bill, acceptable forms of identification include REAL ID compliant documents, a U.S. passport, and a U.S. military ID with record of service, among others.
- Bills in multiple states relating to the presence of federal law enforcement personnel at polling places are under consideration, including SB 884 in California, HB 1442 in Virginia, and SB 264 in New Mexico. Some states are seeking to prohibit ICE presence at the polls while others aim to mandate state cooperation with federal agents on election day.
- In Arizona, lawmakers are considering two resolutions that could go on the ballot in November: HCR 2016 and SCR 1027. HCR 2016 would eliminate voting centers and require voters to cast their ballots at precinct-specific polling places. SCR 1027 would conform municipal elections to the statewide November general election date.
Policy spotlight: Indiana becomes the 18th state to ban ranked-choice voting
The story below is adapted from a recent Ballotpedia News story by Andrew Bahl.
On Feb. 24, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (R) signed SB 12, prohibiting the use of ranked-choice voting in the state, making Indiana the 18th state to ban RCV nationwide.
Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is a system where voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. In the RCV system most commonly used in the United States, a candidate who wins a majority of first-preference votes is the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine use RCV for at least some statewide elections. Municipalities in 14 states use RCV for local elections.
Indiana’s new law, which takes effect July 1, 2026, states that an election “may not be determined by ranked choice voting” and a “candidate may not be nominated for or elected to an office by means of ranked choice voting.”
The legislation passed the Indiana Senate on Jan. 20 on a 38-9 vote, with 37 Republicans and one Democrat voting in favor and nine Democrats voting against. It was then approved on a 58-30 vote in the state House on Feb. 17, with 58 Republicans voting in favor and 28 Democrats and two Republicans voting against.
On Feb. 25, the Ohio House approved a prohibition on RCV on a 65-27 vote after the Ohio Senate passed the measure in May 2025. The House added in a separate provision on the public inspection of candidate petitions, meaning the Senate will need to vote on the bill again before it can be sent to Gov. Mike DeWine (R).
In Maine and Virginia, lawmakers have advanced bills that would expand the offices for which RCV is used or allowed to be used.
So far this year, state legislators have introduced or carried over from the 2025 session 18 bills to prohibit or repeal RCV. Legislators have introduced or carried over 39 bills that would allow or require RCV.
In 2025, six states enacted legislation prohibiting RCV. Six states also passed laws banning RCV in 2024.
Click here to read more about ranked-choice voting in the United States.
Editor’s notes:
This post has been updated to revise Indiana's status from the 19th state to prohibit RCV to the 18th. Our initial tally included Utah, which had a pilot program authorizing RCV that expired on Jan. 1, 2026. After further review, we have recategorized Utah to better delineate between Utah and states which have passed laws explicitly prohibiting the use of RCV.
This post has also been updated to remove an incorrect summary of TN SB 367 that reflected an earlier version of the bill. As enacted, the bill allows political parties to select nominees for the offices of judge, district attorney, or public defender to fill vacancies that occur after the nomination deadline and establishes certification requirements.
