This weekly update summarizing legislative activity affecting voting and elections is powered by the Voting Rights Lab. Sign up for VRL’s weekly newsletter here.
The Voting Rights Lab is tracking 2,158 bills so far this session, with 574 bills that tighten the rules governing voter access or election administration and 1,029 bills that expand the rules.
A New Hampshire bill that would create a stricter voter ID law and establish a new system of provisional ballots took another step forward last week, and Rhode Island enacted the Let RI Vote Act, which allows all voters to cast a mail ballot with no special reason or “excuse” required. Delaware’s House passed a bill to approve same day registration.
Arizona enacted a trio of bills that increase ballot and registration access. Louisiana enacted legislation expanding voter access during states of emergency and lawmakers sent bills to the governor that would increase election worker compensation as well as effectively ban secure ballot drop boxes.
Looking ahead: We’ll be watching to see if Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the New York Voting Rights Act, as well as legislation to meet the 10-day constitutional minimum for the state's voter registration deadline.
Here are the details:
Rhode Island creates no-excuse mail voting. On Tuesday, Gov. Daniel McKee signed the Let RI Vote Act ( S.B. 2007), which eliminates the requirement that voters have a special reason – or “excuse” – to vote by mail. Rhode Island is now one of 34 states that allow qualified voters to cast a ballot by mail with no excuse required. This new law also facilitates mail voting by allowing voters to request mail ballots online, requiring at least one drop box per municipality, and eliminating the requirement that voters get their mail ballots and mail ballot applications notarized or witnessed.
Arizona enacts legislation ensuring voters who apply for mail ballots, but do not return them, can still vote in person. Last week, Gov. Doug Ducey signed S.B. 1460, which allows voters who apply for mail ballots, but do not return them, to cast a regular ballot on Election Day (as long as the electronic poll book confirms that they have not returned their ballot). He also signed S.B. 1362, which allows voters with completed mail ballots to bring them to a polling place on Election Day, show ID, and insert the mail ballot directly into a tabulator without requiring the signature verification that all other mail ballots must undergo. Finally, Ducey signed S.B. 1170, which requires the Department of Game and Fish to provide voter registration services to people applying for a hunting, fishing or trapping license.
Louisiana expands voter access during states of emergency, and state lawmakers send bills to the governor that would ban drop boxes and increase election worker compensation. Last week, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed S.B. 258, which increases voter access during states of emergency by permitting the secretary of state to conduct early voting at times and locations accessible to affected voters. Also last week, the Legislature sent two other bills to the governor, including a bill that would effectively ban secure ballot drop boxes and one that would increase election worker compensation.
New Hampshire’s strict voter ID bill is signed by the speaker of the House and heads to the secretary of state. S.B. 418, which would make the state's voter ID law more restrictive, continues to advance through the legislative process. Now that the bill has been signed by the speaker of the House, it advances to the secretary of state’s office for signature and then to the governor. Current New Hampshire law allows voters without physical ID to cast a regular ballot if they complete an affidavit affirming their identity, under penalty of perjury. This bill would eliminate that alternative, and instead rescind their vote from the count if they are unable to show an ID within 10 days of the election. Most states with voter ID laws offer an alternative to ensure the identity of voters without ID can be verified through other means. This new bill would put New Hampshire in the minority.
The Delaware House passes same-day voter registration. The Delaware House of Representatives passed a bill that will allow voter registration to continue until the close of polls on Election Day. Under current law, the registration deadline is the fourth Saturday before Election Day. The bill now heads to the state Senate.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.