The Ballot Bulletin: September 12, 2025

September 19 →

← September 5

Stay on top of election policy

Email *

Please complete the Captcha above

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 66 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 66 bills over the last week, 26 more than last week. Ten state legislatures are still in regular or special sessions. 

• One bill was enacted this week. One was enacted during the same week in 2024, four were enacted in 2023, and none were enacted in 2022.
• Legislators acted on four bills in 2024 and 50 in 2023 during the same week. 
• Forty-two of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, 10 are in states with Republican trifectas, and 14 are in states with a divided government.  
• The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (39), counting and certification (13), and ballot access (11). 
• We are currently following 4,803 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 2,898 bills.

In the news

A glance at what's making headlines in the world of election law.

• On Sept. 10, a Michigan Senate committee advanced four election policy bills, barring the compensation of petition circulators by signature and making it a crime to provide false information about elections. The bills —SB0529, SB0530, SB0531, and SB0533 — will now go to the Senate floor for a full vote. Democrats hold a 19-18 majority in the Michigan Senate, while Republicans hold a 58-52 majority in the state House. 
• On Sept. 8, U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee rejected a challenge to a Georgia law that prohibits voter registration organizations from sending absentee ballot applications with voters' information already provided and sending applications to voters who already requested one. The groups Voter Participation Center, Center for Voter Information, and VoteAmerica filed the lawsuit in 2021, arguing that the law violated the groups’ free speech rights and impeded voter participation.
• On Sept. 8, the North Carolina Board of Elections released revised rules concerning voters whose names or birth dates do not match information in the state's voter registration files. Under the revised requirements, these voters will no longer have to cast a provisional ballot and can use a regular ballot if they show an accepted form of identification.
• On Sept. 8, the Texas Republican Party sued Secretary of State Jane Nelson (R), arguing that the state's open primary system violates the Party's First Amendment right to association because it requires the Party "to allow voters who may fundamentally oppose the Party’s principles and candidates to choose the Party’s nominees." Under the state's current primary system, any registered voter can participate in either party's primary election. Texas is one of 14 states where state law requires open primaries for congressional or state-level offices.

Key movements

A look at what bills are moving and where. 

One bill was enacted in the past week. One bill was enacted during the same week in 2024, four were enacted in 2023, and none was enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.

• Delaware (Democratic trifecta)
  • DE HB85

Six bills passed both chambers of a state legislature. To see the full list of all bills awaiting gubernatorial action, click here.

• California (Democratic trifecta)
  • CA AB5
  • CA AB94
  • CA AB930
  • CA AB1072
  • CA AB1512

• Texas (Republican trifecta)
  • TX SB54

No bills were vetoed in the past week. Seventy bills have been vetoed so far this year. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2024, 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

One bill was 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 37 weeks of each year.

All bills

We are following 4,803 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year. 

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 1,772 (36.9%)
  • Republican: 2,241 (46.7%) 
  • Divided: 790 (16.4%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 1,842 (38.4%)
  • Republican: 2,325 (48.4%)
  • Bipartisan: 411 (8.6%)
  • Other: 225 (4.7%)

We were following 2,898 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.

• Trifecta status
  • Democratic: 1,518 (52.4%)
  • Republican: 944 (32.6%) 
  • Divided: 436 (15%) 

• Partisan sponsorship
  • Democratic: 1,333 (46%)
  • Republican: 1,069 (36.9%)
  • Bipartisan: 328 (11.3%)
  • Other: 168 (5.8%)

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.