The Ballot Bulletin: November 21, 2025
A note to readers: Ballot Bulletin will take a break next week in observance of Thanksgiving, but our coverage of election-related legislation and news will resume on Dec. 5.
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 53 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week's legislative actions.
Lawmakers in eight states acted on 53 bills over the last week, 29 more than last week. Eight state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions.
- No bills were enacted this week. Five bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, no bills were enacted in 2023, and no bills were enacted during the same week in 2022.
- Legislators acted on 20 bills in 2024 and 20 bills in 2023 during the same week.
- Thirty of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, four are in a state with a Republican trifecta, and 19 are in states with a divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (24), counting and certification (11), and absentee/mail-in voting (9).
- We are currently following 4,935 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 3,199 bills.
In the news
A glance at what's making headlines in the world of election law.
- On Nov. 19, the Ohio House of Representatives amended and passed SB 293, which requires absentee ballots to be received by local boards of elections by the close of polls on Election Day, on a 61-30 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor, all Democrats and two Republicans voting against, and eight members absent. Later that day, the Ohio Senate concurred in amendments to the bill on a 23-10 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats and one Republican voting against, sending it to Gov. Mike DeWine (R). Currently, Ohio law allows absentee ballots to be counted if they arrive up to four days after the election and were postmarked on or before Election Day.
- On Nov. 19, an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit that sought to end Maryland’s closed primary system. A group of five unaffiliated voters brought the lawsuit in May, arguing that closed primaries violated their right to vote under the Maryland Constitution. Former Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R), who is representing the unaffiliated voters, said he would appeal the decision.
- On Nov. 19, a U.S. district court judge temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing new laws governing the state’s petition and referendum process against groups that sought to place measures on the 2026 ballot. The laws, passed earlier this year, included requiring ballot measure titles to be written at an eighth-grade reading level or lower and mandating that canvassers ask for a signer's photo ID before gathering their signature. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks ruled that the laws likely violated the state and U.S. constitutions.
- On Nov. 18, a panel of three federal judges ruled 2-1 that Texas could not use a redrawn congressional map that aimed to net five additional Republican districts. The panel ordered the state to use the map passed in 2021 for the 2026 elections. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said he plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Key movements
A look at what bills are moving and where.
No bills were enacted in the past week. Five bills were enacted during the same week in 2024. No bills were enacted in 2023, and no bills were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.
Five 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. Seventy-one bills have been vetoed so far this year. One bill was vetoed during this period in 2024, and no bills were vetoed during this period in 2023 or 2022. 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
No bills were enacted this week. The chart below shows the number of enacted bills in 2025 compared to previous years.
The chart below shows the number of bills enacted over the first 47 weeks of each year.
All bills
We are following 4,935 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,806 (36.6%)
- Republican: 2,275 (46.1%)
- Divided: 854 (17.3%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,919 (38.9%)
- Republican: 2,377 (48.2%)
- Bipartisan: 411 (8.3%)
- Other: 228 (4.6%)
We were following 3,199 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,603 (50.1%)
- Republican: 1,082 (33.8%)
- Divided: 514 (16.1%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,465 (45.8%)
- Republican: 1,190 (37.2%)
- Bipartisan: 364 (11.4%)
- Other: 180 (5.6%)
See the charts below for a comparison of total bills between 2023 and 2025 and a breakdown of all 2025 legislation by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
