On the Ballot

On this episode: New York City–home to the nation's largest public school district–is planning to ban cell phones in classrooms across all of its roughly 16,000 schools. What would such a policy look like at this scale, and how do parents, educators, and students feel about its efficacy? Chalkbeat NYC Bureau Chief Amy Zimmer joins the show to bring us up to speed on where the policy stands and...

On this episode: Many observers of national politics might not have known much about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) before his ascendence over the last few weeks to become Kamala Harris' choice for a running mate, which became official last night. Why'd Harris choose Walz over other front runners like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro or Arizona Senator Mark Kelly? What's his record...

On this episode: Texans have decided on 708 ballot measures in the nearly 150 years since the state adopted its constitution. Five hundred twenty-eight (528) measures were approved, meaning the constitution has been amended 528 times. One hundred eighty (180) measures were defeated, giving Texas measures a lifetime approval rating of roughly 75%. In the first episode of what will become a recurrin...

On this episode: The first six months of 2024 have already seen the most recall attempts, and successful recalls of politicians, at this point in the year in the last ten years. What’s behind the recent surge in recall activity? In this episode, you’ll hear a full breakdown of BP’s mid-year report on political recalls, including this year’s most common trends, why states like Texas and Wisconsin a...

On this episode: According to BP's annual trifecta vulnerability ratings, eleven state government trifectas are vulnerable in the 2024 elections. Democrats are defending seven vulnerable trifectas and Republicans are defending four. For the Democrats, Oregon’s trifecta status is highly vulnerable, while the Republican trifectas of Texas and New Hampshire are also highly vulnerable.  A state go...

On this episode: The assassination attempt on Donald Trump and President Joe Biden dropping out of the race for the White House–two history-shattering events in the span of eight days–have firmly pushed the minor party presidential candidates out of the conversation for the time being.  What impact might they have as we move closer to election day, and what sort of laws and tactics factor into how...

On this episode: President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election this afternoon, July 21st. A president-elect has never withdrawn, died, or become incapacitated between the general election and the presidential inauguration in American history. So what happens now?  BP staff writer Ellen Morrissey joins the show to break down Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, ho...

On this episode: Kyle Kondik–the managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics–joins the show to discuss the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump (R), Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance (R) as his running mate, and how Joe Biden’s (D) debate performance may affect presidential polling. Plus – more on Senate/House projections, abortion ballot measure...

On this episode: An in-depth walkthrough of our mid-year report on election administration legislation. Ballotpedia has tracked 3,735 election-related bills in 2024, more than in all of 2023. For the third year in a row, state legislators considered more election-related legislation in states with Democratic trifectas, but adopted more new election laws in states with Republican trifectas. In Repu...

On this Episode: On Friday, SCOTUS overruled the legal doctrine known as Chevron Deference in a 6-3 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts. For almost 40 years, Chevron served as a legal structure through which courts may review, approve, and reject regulations in the context of statutory intent. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Katanji Brown-Jackson dissented, arguing that defe...

On this episode: A conversation with Joe Nguyen, a Democratic member of the Washington State Senate, representing District 34. Senator Nguyen sponsored WA SB 5838, which established an artificial intelligence task force that’ll explore different use cases, think through how to address developments like deepfakes, and set the standard for where Washington state goes from here.  483 bills have been...

On this episode: A conversation with Toni Hasenbeck, a Republican member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, representing District 65. Representative Hasenbeck has sponsored several bills related to artificial intelligence–one of which being OK HB 3642, which updated the state's laws on obscenity and child pornography and broadened what might be considered unlawful.  483 bills have been...

On this episode: Unlike for-profit organizations, campaigns are considered nonprofits and are, as a result, not as heavily scrutinized when it comes to privacy practices. What does that mean for your personal data when you visit a campaign’s website?  Kaushal Kafle–a soon-to-be doctoral graduate from William and Mary University–and his colleagues analyzed the privacy practices of political campaig...

On this episode: Earlier this week, voters in North Dakota approved a ballot measure that will establish age limits for the US Senate or US House of Representatives from the Roughrider State. The Congressional Age Limits Initiative, also known as North Dakota Initiated Measure 1, passed with 61% of the vote. It's officially the first American law of its kind to set a cap on how old you can be...

On this episode: Introducing our new tool! The first nationwide resource for state-level administrative state bill tracking, our brand new tracker provides a free, one-stop hub for individuals to follow administrative state legislative reforms in every state legislature, from introduction to enactment.  Check out the Tracker here:  https://legislation.ballotpedia.org/admin-state/home   Learn more...

On this episode: As of May 23, 110 statewide ballot measures have been certified for the ballot in 35 states for elections this year. In even-numbered years since 2010, the average was 161 statewide ballot measures. With a little over a month until most state legislative sessions come to a close and citizen initiative signature deadlines approaching this summer, our ballot measures team takes a lo...

On this episode: As state legislative sessions begin to wrap up around the country, Ballotpedia has tracked roughly 20 enacted bills related to Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing across 14 states thus far in 2024. What do they have in common?  Leg. Supporting ESG: https://ballotpedia.org/State_legislative_approaches_supporting_ESG_investing   Leg. Opposing ESG: https:/...

On this episode: On May 21st, voters in Eugene, Oregon, will decide whether or not to replace the existing electoral system with STAR voting for Mayor and City Council Elections. If approved, the city would become the first in the world to utilize this system for electing their political leaders.  Through STAR voting, voters rate candidates for a given office on a scale of zero to five, with zero...

On this episode: An interview with Sophia Voight, a political reporter for The Appleton Post-Crescent, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK in Wisconsin. We came across Sophia’s reporting about a month ago in a story she wrote just ahead of Wisconsin’s state-wide local elections on April 2nd, in which she noticed and documented something that we’ve been following closely here at Ballotpedia: Local electi...

On this episode: This weekend on Saturday, May 4th, Lubbock is looking to become the 6th city or locality in Texas to try and decriminalize the possession of a small amount of cannabis. Ordinances have passed in Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Denton, and Elgin with upwards of 70% in favor in each vote, but have yet to have meaningful implications, as Texas’s Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton ha...

On this episode: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) just released its biennial update of the Elections Performance Index (E.P.I.) for 2022, and it brought exciting news about the state of American elections: Over the past decade, the EPI has charted the steady improvement of virtually every state in how elections are administered.  Professor Charles Stewart –director of the MIT Ele...

On this episode: The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act–more commonly referred to by its acronym, the REINS Act–is a bill that could cause major changes to the federal rule-making process if it passes into law. If passed, it would require legislative approval of agency regulations with certain financial or economic impacts before the regulations become effective. But what’s tha...

On this episode: Most public school K-12 students in the U.S. attend a school based primarily on their residential address–and that dividing line can often determine the quality of the public education available to them. These boundaries link public education to the many facets of family residential decisions, including wealth, ethnicity, social connection, employment, and status. Ballotpedia’s di...

On this episode: For the 100th episode of On the Ballot(!!), Ballotpedia founder and CEO Leslie Graves joins our social media manager Abby Campbell for a chat about how Ballotpedia can help young prospective voters get informed and empowered in what promises to be an exciting year of elections.  Leslie and Abby discuss weeding through the abundance of news online, how to identify reliable politica...

On this special video episode: All 435 House seats are up for grabs this year, but, as is often the case, the balance of power will come down to around a dozen key races around the country. Republicans are looking to hold onto their slim 221-214 majority, as Democrats seek a net gain of 4 seats to flip the lower chamber.  Nathan Gonzales , the publisher and editor of the nonpartisan ratings outlet...