While unprecedented activity at the federal level understandably dominates headlines, all eyes should be on the new laws being made in state capitals this year. Just as the groundswell of new state laws enacted in the post-2020 period set the stage for the 2024 election, states are already setting the rules that will shape the 2026 and 2028 elections.
Here we dive into what the post-2020 election law changes told us about the 2024 election, including a decline in mail voting and greater access to in-person early voting. We also identify the early state legislative trends that could dramatically impact the voter experience in 2026 and 2028 — for better and for worse.
Past as Prologue: State Laws Post-2020 Restricted Mail Voting, Expanded In-Person Early Voting – Affecting 2024 Voting Behavior
Record-breaking turnout, along with rampant disinformation, sparked a major backlash after the 2020 election. Many of the election law changes were fueled by unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud — particularly around mail voting, which necessarily spiked during the pandemic. In the years that followed, 23 states passed laws that made it harder for voters to request or return mail ballots.
These new hurdles led to an increase in rejected mail ballots and applications, leaving longtime voters frustrated and confused.
In addition, many states passed new laws treating the voting booth like a crime scene: states from Florida to Texas introduced hundreds of bills that threatened voters, election officials, and others with civil and criminal penalties. Four years later, states with the most restrictive laws — like Georgia, Florida, and Texas — saw a steep drop in mail voting. The easing of pandemic restrictions no doubt played a role, but many voters who once relied on mail ballots to participate in elections were forced to navigate new, and often confusing, processes.
“I was so excited to vote and so motivated to vote that I couldn’t wait until Nov. 5 to do it,” said a retired educator who was able to vote early for the first time in Missouri in 2024, due to a new state law.
There were, however, some bright spots post-2020, with several states expanding access to in-person early voting.
In total, 24 states passed laws that created or expanded early voting opportunities, a change that many voters took advantage of in 2024. Early in-person voting proved wildly popular in first-time early voting states Michigan and Missouri, where voters flocked to the voting booth to cast their ballots on their own schedule: Fully 1.2 million voters in Michigan took advantage of the early voting period, with final tallies out of Missouri still pending. Expanded in-person voting also contributed to the smooth administration of the 2024 election by helping election officials process votes with less stress and more accuracy.
A Preview of What’s to Come: Documentary Proof of Citizenship Proliferates, States Reverse Course on Some Post-2020 Restrictions
Documentary proof of citizenship should be of serious concern to anyone who cares about the freedom to vote. Such laws would not only make it harder for eligible citizens to vote; they could block millions of Americans from voting altogether. Despite the overwhelming harm, new bill introductions are sweeping the country, with lawmakers in at least 18 states introducing such mandates. These state-level bills — in addition to similar federal efforts — are based on the extremely dubious and repeatedly disproven narrative that undocumented immigrants are voting in our elections. They are also completely unnecessary; federal and state laws already make it explicitly clear that it is illegal for noncitizens to vote, and multiple checks and balances are in place to ensure only citizens vote.
If enacted and enforced, these ill-conceived laws could dramatically reshape the electorate in 2026 and 2028.
Research shows documentary proof of citizenship mandates could block millions of voting-eligible citizens from casting a ballot — especially low-income and rural individuals, married women, and seniors. These groups are least likely to be able to meet new mandates that voters present certified birth certificates or passports (driver’s licenses would not suffice) to register or re-register to vote, such as after a move or a change in party affiliation. We’ve already seen the harmful effects: Past state attempts to implement such requirements have been struck down by courts for blocking one in eight new registrants and led to cumbersome and confusing dual-track registration systems that recently threatened the registration status of hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.
On the bright side, there is growing recognition that some laws passed in the post-2020 period indeed created significant roadblocks for voters and election officials, pushing lawmakers to rethink their approach.
Some lawmakers have demonstrated interest in relaxing certain barriers to voting enacted in the past four years — in time for future elections — as some states express “buyer’s remorse” over laws passed in the wake of the 2020 election. In Florida, for example, county election supervisors are pushing to reverse a 2021 law that forces voters to reapply for mail-in ballots every two years. Officials say this led to a dramatic decrease in mail ballot requests for both the 2024 presidential election and ongoing special elections.
Texas lawmakers have indicated they are also looking to better balance ballot secrecy with public transparency by amending laws passed in 2023 that made ballot images and vote records publicly available. The secretary of state issued emergency guidance ahead of the November 2024 election to redact certain information necessary to protect the sacred secrecy of the ballot, and lawmakers are expected to take similar steps through legislation during the 2025 session.
What New State Laws Tell Us About the Future
We are less than two months into the year – and our Tracker team is monitoring hundreds of new election-related bills each day. While we cannot predict the outcome for every piece of legislation being introduced in the states, we can say one thing with certainty: what states do today will determine whether we hold free and fair elections in 2028.