State Legislatures Attempt to Restrict Voting Rights by Targeting Local Election Administration
The Trump administration and some members of Congress have recently signaled a desire to enact sweeping changes to how elections are administered - from curtailing vote by mail to enacting nationwide voter ID requirements. While the SAVE America Act passed the House last week, its path forward in the Senate is uncertain. Given the unknown fate of the SAVE America Act, President Trump has declared his intention to issue another elections-focused executive order in the days ahead, which will almost certainly be met with immediate litigation.
In the meantime, state legislatures across the country are picking up the baton by introducing sweeping election preemption bills that would restrict how localities administer elections and how voters can cast their ballots. The content in many of these bills mirrors the 'proof of citizenship' and vote by mail provisions in the SAVE America Act.
LSSC is currently tracking 94 election preemption bills across 30 states. Forty-five of these 94 bills are newly introduced in 2026; the other 49 carried over from 2025. For comparison, LSSC tracked a total of 81 election preemption bills in 2025.
The majority of these election preemption bills fall into one of four categories:
Bills that restrict mail-in voting, absentee voting, and/or early voting
Bills that require proof of citizenship in order to vote
Bills that ban ranked choice voting
Bills that prohibit funding for election administration
Below are examples of moving bills that fall into each of the categories outlined above
Bills that restrict mail-in voting, absentee voting, and/or early voting
In Arizona, SCR 1001 would require voters to proactively request a mail-in ballot, rather than automatically receive a ballot in the mail – despite the fact that Arizona’s mail-in ballot distribution system has been in place for nearly two decades. SCR 1001 would also require all localities to end early voting the Friday before an election.
In Indiana, HB 1166 would prohibit early in person voting, vote centers, mass-mail in voting, ballot collecting, ballot drop boxes, and electronic voting – which is currently only available to Indiana residents who are military or overseas voters. HB 1166 would also restrict eligibility for voting absentee and would clarify that all voters must file an application for an absentee ballot before each election.
In Iowa, HF 2165 would move up the deadline for returning absentee ballots to 5pm the day before Election Day, rather than the time of poll closures on Election Day. In prior years, absentee ballots that were postmarked up until the day before the election have been included in the count; this bill would remove that provision.
In West Virginia, HB 5275 would severely restrict absentee voting for several groups of people who were previously eligible, including: People whose employment doesn’t permit them to vote in person, students attending college outside the county of their residence, people away on personal or business travel, and people away from their county of residence because they’re serving as an elected or appointed federal or state official.
Bills that require proof of citizenship in order to vote
In Arizona, SCR 1001 would require proof of citizenship in order to obtain a mail-in ballot, though interestingly, would not enact the same requirement for in-person voting.
In Florida, HB 991 would require the state DMV to confirm the citizenship status of each voter registration applicant, require Florida’s Department of State to verify the United States citizenship status of any registered voter after a to-be determined date, and restrict residents from voting until they have provided ‘sufficient evidence of citizenship’ to the supervisor of elections.
Also in Florida, HB 985 would require the supervisor of elections to verify the citizenship status of all people registering to vote, revise the type of identification accepted at polling places, and require ‘certain electors’ to show Florida ID card upon entering polling places.
In Indiana, HB 1166 would require all voter registration applications to include proof of citizenship.
In Iowa, SF 2203 would require the Iowa Secretary of State’s office to verify the U.S. citizenship of all registered voters on an annual basis and to verify the U.S. citizenship of all newly registered voters in the state on a monthly basis.
In South Dakota, SB 175 would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
Bills that ban ranked choice voting
In Indiana, SB 12 would prohibit the use of ranked choice voting.
In Oklahoma, SB 1759 would prohibit the state and any political subdivision from enacting a ranked choice voting system. The bill would also allow private enforcement of the law, allowing any citizen in a jurisdiction that adopts a ranked choice voting system to sue to prevent the system from going into effect
Bills that prohibit funding for election administration
In Arizona, SCR 1014 would further restrict funding for election administration while offering no additional public funds to ensure officials can meet the growing demands of successfully administering secure elections.
In Missouri, SB 896 would prohibit election funding from any source that is not another government entity – meaning that it would ban philanthropic support of election administration in Missouri without providing adequate state funding for it. Violations of this rule would be subject to criminal penalties. Additionally, the bill would allow any registered voter to sue to enforce it. bring an action to enforce.
In New York, SB 1778 would prohibit the state board of elections and local boards of elections from accepting donations of private funds for election administration.
LSSC monitors abusive preemption bills in all 50 states and will continue to release trend reports for the duration of the 2026 legislative session. If you have questions about any of the bills in this update, or about any of the broader preemption trends our team is tracking, please contact media@supportdemocracy.org. We’d be happy to get you connected with the right expert.