The Ballot Bulletin: Ballotpedia’s Weekly Digest On Election Administration, January 26, 2024

Republicans sponsored more than half of the active bills this week.

Mississippi House Passes Constitutional Amendment For New State Initiative And Referendum Process That Would Prohibit Initiatives Related To Abortion. Every Friday, we deliver the latest updates on election policy around the country, including nationwide trends, legislative activity, and updates on notable lawsuits and policy changes.

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Legislative highlights

• One bill has been approved since our last edition.
• Democrats sponsored 80 (29.2%) of the 274 bills active over the past week, and Republicans sponsored 146 (53.3%) bills. Twenty-three (8.4%) bills had bipartisan sponsorship. Twenty-five (9.1%) bills had sponsors other than Democrats or Republicans, such as nonpartisan lawmakers or committee sponsorship. 
• Seventy-four (27%) of these bills are in states with Democratic trifectas, 122 (44.5%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 78 (28.5%) are in states with a divided government. 
• Thirteen bills passed one or both chambers this week. Two were in Democratic trifectas, and of those, Democrats sponsored one. Six were in Republican trifectas, and of those, Republicans sponsored one.
• The top five bill topics this week were:
  1. Ballot verification (26)
  2. Voter registration and list maintenance (21)
  3. Counting and certification (17)
  4. Election dates and deadlines (17)
  5. Election types and contest-specific procedures (15)

Recent activity

Enacted bills

States approved one election-related bill since our last edition, compared to one in 2023 and three in 2022.

• LA SB8: Provides for redistricting of Louisiana congressional districts.

Bills that passed both chambers

Three bills passed both chambers since our last edition and are awaiting gubernatorial action.  To see all bills that have currently passed both chambers, click here.

South Dakota (Republican trifecta)

• SD SB21: Rescind rule-making authority for the annual report of the number of voters removed from a county’s voter registration list.
• SD SB19: Rescind rulemaking authority pertaining to the process for publishing required voter registration numbers.

Wisconsin (Divided government)

• WI AB570: Certain kinds of election fraud, defects on absentee ballot certificates, returning absentee ballots to the office of the municipal clerk, appointment of election officials, allowing an employee of a residential care facility or qualified retirement home to serve as a personal care voting assistant during a public health emergency or an incident of infectious disease, and providing a penalty. 

Vetoed bills

Governors have not vetoed any bills since our last edition. No bills were vetoed during this period in 2023. 

Recent activity by state and trifecta status

Of the 274 bills with activity this week, 74 (27%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 122 (44.5%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 78 (28.5%) are in states with a divided government. 

The map below shows election-related bills acted on in the past week by state trifecta status.

All legislation

Enacted bills by sponsorship and trifecta status

States have enacted seven bills so far this year, compared to two bills in 2023 and 10 bills in 2022. The chart below shows the number and partisan sponsorship of enacted bills in 2024, 2023, and 2022.

Four of the election-related bills passed this year (57.1%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, one (14.3%) is in a state with a Republican trifecta, and two (28.6%) are in states with divided governments. The table below shows the number of enacted election-related bills introduced by trifecta status this year compared to 2023 and 2022.

All bills by topic and sponsorship

The chart below displays the topic and sponsorship of a sample of the 2,180 total bills we’ve followed this year. Note that the sums of the numbers listed do not equal the total number of bills because some bills deal with multiple topics.  

All bills by state and trifecta status

Of all the election-related bills introduced this year, 1,114 (51.1%) are in states with Democratic trifectas, 664 (30.5%) are in states with Republican trifectas, and 402 (18.4%) are in states with divided governments. 

In 2023, 42% of bills were in states with Democratic trifectas, 43.8% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 14.2% were in states with divided governments. In 2022, 37.8% of bills were in states with Democratic trifectas, 30.4% were in states with Republican trifectas, and 31.8% were in states with divided governments.

The map below shows the number of election-related bills introduced by state and trifecta status this year.

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