Two ballot initiatives certified for 2025, mail-in ballot rejection rate was 1.2% in 2024
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Here are the top stories from the week of August 18 - August 22.
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** Nationwide mail-in ballot rejection rate was 1.2% in 2024, higher than in 2016 and 2020
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On June 30, the Election Assistance Commission released the 2024 Election Administration and Voting Survey results. In Monday’s Brew, we analyzed the survey's reporting on rejected mail-in ballots across all 50 states and U.S. territories in 2024 and compared these figures to previous elections.
2024 had the second-most mail-in ballots cast nationwide, behind only 2020. In terms of raw numbers, 2024 had more ballots rejected than any election going back to 2016. The rejection rate of 1.2% is higher than in the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections. However, the 2024 rejection rate is lower than that of the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections.
Arkansas (8.8%), Delaware (5.1%), and Oklahoma (4.3%) had the highest rejection rates in 2024. Arkansas also had the highest rejection rate in 2020, with 6.4%. The three states with the lowest rejection rates were Vermont, Maine, and Indiana, with 0.2% each.
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** Two ballot initiatives certified for 2025—fewest since 2019
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Two citizen initiatives —both in Maine — were certified for statewide ballots this year. This means that 2025 is tied with 2019 for having the fewest citizen initiatives certified since 2011. An average of five initiatives were certified in odd-numbered election years between 2011 and 2013.
Excluding special elections, only four states allow citizen initiatives in odd-year elections: Colorado, Maine, Ohio, and Washington. In 2025:
* Sponsors in Washington filed 101 initiatives.
* Sponsors in Ohio filed five initiatives.
* Sponsors in Maine filed three initiatives, two of which were certified.
* There were no initiatives filed in Colorado.
On average, sponsors filed 21 initiatives per year in odd years between 2011 and 2023.
There are 29 statewide measures on ballots this year, including the two citizen initiatives. State legislatures referred the other 27 measures to the ballot.
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** President Trump announces the first federal judicial nomination of a state supreme court justice in over two years
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On Aug. 12, President Donald Trump (R) announced that he intends to nominate Alabama Supreme Court Justice Bill Lewis to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. This announcement marks the first potential judicial elevation from a state supreme court since March 2023.
Maria Araujo Kahn was the last state supreme court justice elevated to a federal judgeship. President Joe Biden (D) nominated Kahn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Jan. 3, 2023—the first day of the 118th Congress.
Eight state supreme court justices have been appointed and confirmed to lifetime federal judicial positions since 2018. Trump made five of those appointments, and Biden made the remaining three.
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