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The Ballot Bulletin: September 19, 2025
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 41 bills state legislatures acted on in the past week.
Weekly highlights
The big takeaways from the past week's legislative actions.
Lawmakers in six states acted on 41 bills over the last week, 25 fewer 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, 11 were enacted in 2023, and none were enacted in 2022.
- Legislators acted on 10 bills in 2024 and 65 in 2023 during the same week.
- Twenty-six of the bills acted on this week are in states with Democratic trifectas, five are in states with Republican trifectas, and 10 are in states with a divided government.
- The most active bill categories this week were election types and contest-specific procedures (20), counting and certification (12), and campaign finance (11).
- We are currently following 4,813 bills. At this time in 2023, the last odd year when all states held legislative sessions, we were following 3,081 bills.
In the news
A glance at what's making headlines in the world of election law.
- On Sept. 18, a group of voters in Madison, Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officials denied them their right to vote and seeking compensation. In the November 2024 general election, city officials failed to count 193 absentee ballots, after which the city clerk resigned and the Wisconsin Elections Commission ordered the city to revise its ballot counting procedures.
- On Sept. 16, the U.S. Department of Justice filed lawsuits against Oregon and Maine, alleging the states broke federal law because they did not provide their state voter registration lists to the department. In August, Oregon rejected two requests for the state to share its voter registration files and information about list maintenance.
- On Sept. 16, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) cannot enforce a provision in the state's Election Procedures Manual prohibiting "threatening, harassing, intimidating, or coercing" behavior at polling places. Judge Kim Wardlaw, a Clinton appointee, wrote, "Plaintiffs may be dissuaded from engaging in their intended speech even if there is no threat of criminal prosecution because election officials may nonetheless report them to police or remove them from the polling location based on guidance provided by the Elections Procedure Manual."
- On Sept. 12, the Missouri Senate passed a bill redrawing the state's congressional districts. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Kehoe (R), who is expected to sign the new district maps into law.
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, 11 were enacted in 2023, and none were enacted in 2022. To see all enacted bills, click here.
- Missouri (Republican trifecta)
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)
- Missouri (Republican trifecta)
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 38 weeks of each year.
All bills
We are following 4,813 election-related bills this year, including bills carried over from the previous year.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,778 (36.9%)
- Republican: 2,242 (46.6%)
- Divided: 793 (16.5%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,856 (38.6%)
- Republican: 2,331 (48.4%)
- Bipartisan: 402 (8.4%)
- Other: 224 (4.7%)
We were following 3,081 bills at this point in 2023. Below is a breakdown of those bills by trifecta status and partisan sponsorship.
- Trifecta status
- Democratic: 1,563 (50.7%)
- Republican: 1,048 (34%)
- Divided: 470 (15.3%)
- Partisan sponsorship
- Democratic: 1,412 (45.8%)
- Republican: 1,145 (37.2%)
- Bipartisan: 346 (11.2%)
- Other: 178 (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.
