Several times a year, the Brennan Center and the Democracy Policy Lab at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy publish a roundup of state voting legislation around the country. Since the 2020 election, this legislation has taken on new importance in state legislatures, with lawmakers aggressively attempting to limit voting access and roll back gains in turnout. In 2026, that trend continues.
As of May 1, 2026, at least 9 states have enacted 12 restrictive laws, 9 of which are slated to be in effect for the midterm elections in November. Overall, at least 302 restrictive bills have been considered in 41 states. Since the 2020 presidential election, at least 30 states have enacted 123 restrictive laws. And the pace is only increasing: The total of 44 restrictive laws passed between January 2025 and April 2026 has already set a new high for a two-year federal election cycle, and 2026 is far from over. Restrictive legislation makes it harder for eligible Americans to cast their ballots.
Since 2022, the Brennan Center has been tracking another category of legislation that subverts democracy: election interference legislation. These measures allow for partisan interference in elections or threaten the people and processes that make elections work. They stand to not only harm existing election administration, but they also undermine voters’ faith in the security of elections. Last year, at least 7 states enacted 8 election interference laws, all 8 of which will be in effect for the midterms. No state has enacted an interference law through the first four months of 2026, although at least 25 states have considered 65 interference bills. Since 2020, at least 18 states passed 41 election interference laws.
A big change in 2025 was that new expansive laws, which seek to make it easier for eligible American citizens to vote, did not significantly outpace the number of restrictive laws passed. From 2021 to 2024, expansive laws outnumbered restrictive ones by at least 1.5 times each year (in 2023, the ratio was more than 3 to 1), but in 2025 there were more restrictive laws than expansive ones. In 2026, the ratio of expansive law to restrictive laws remains lower than it was before 2025. At least 6 states have enacted 16 expansive laws. At least 42 states have considered 558 expansive bills this year. At least 46 states plus Washington, DC, have enacted 216 expansive laws since January 2021.
