Here is our weekly round-up on election-related legislation. In it, you’ll find the following information: 

This part of our report highlights recent activity on specific noteworthy bills. A bill is noteworthy if it meets one or more of the following criteria: 

MO HB1878: This bill makes a number of modifications to the state’s election laws, including, but not limited to, the following: 

Legislative history and status: The state Senate approved the final version of the bill on May 9 by a vote of 23-11, with 23 Republicans voting in favor of the bill and 10 Democrats and one Republican voting against the bill. The state House followed suit on May 12 by a vote of 97-46, with 96 Republicans and one Democrat voting in favor and 46 Democrats voting against the bill. Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed HB1878 into law on June 29.

Political context: Missouri is a Republican trifecta, meaning that Republicans control the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. 

Since June 24, 48 bills have been acted on in some way (a 38.5 percent decrease as compared to last week’s total of 78 bills). These 48 bills represent 1.9 percent of the 2,521 bills we are tracking. Of these 48 bills, 34 (70.8 percent) are from states with Democratic trifectas, 9 (18.8 percent) are from states with Republican trifectas, and 5 (10.4 percent) are from states with divided governments. 

The bar chart below compares recent activity on a week-to-week basis over the last eight weeks. 

The map below visualizes the concentration of this recent activity across the nation. A darker shade of yellow indicates a higher number of relevant bills that have been acted upon in the last week. A lighter shade of yellow indicates a lower number of bills that have been acted upon in the last week. 

To date, we have tracked 2,521 election-related bills. This represents a marginal increase as compared to last week’s 2,519 bills. These bills were either introduced this year or crossed over from last year’s legislative sessions. 

The pie charts below visualize the legislative status of the bills we are tracking. The following status indicators are used: 

The pie charts below visualize the legislative status of bills in Democratic and Republican trifectas, respectively. 

The map below visualizes the concentration of legislative activity across the nation. A darker shade of yellow indicates a higher number of relevant bills that have been introduced. A lighter shade of yellow indicates a lower number of relevant bills. 

The pie chart below visualizes the partisan affiliation of bill sponsors.

The bar chart below visualizes the correlation between the partisan affiliation of bill sponsors and trifecta status (e.g., how many Democratic-sponsored bills were introduced in Democratic trifectas vs. Republican trifectas).

The chart below presents information on the total number of bills dealing with particular topics. The number listed on the blue portion of each bar indicates the number of Democratic-sponsored bills dealing with the subject in question. The number listed on the red portion of the bar indicates the number of Republican-sponsored bills. The purple and gray portions of the bar indicate the number of bipartisan-sponsored bills and bills with unspecified sponsorship, respectively. Note that the numbers listed here will not, when summed, equal the total number of bills because some bills deal with multiple topics.

Jerrick Adams is a staff writer at Ballotpedia. Contact us at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Ballotpedia is the digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections. Visit us at Ballotpedia.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.