the-big-lies-long-shadow/bills: 38

This file contains the data used in the story The Big Lie's Long Shadow.

bills.csv contains a list of voter restriction bills that have been introduced in state legislatures across the country. This database looks at bills introduced in legislative sessions that were active in 2021 and is based on data from the Brennan Center for Justice and the Voting Rights Lab, as well as FiveThirtyEight's own research.

Column	Definition
State	State where the bill was introduced.
Bill	Name and link to LegisScan entry for the bill. Crossed out bill names indicate that they have since been renamed (with new bill names listed afterwards).
Introducing Party	Party of the legislator(s) who sponsored the bill, according to LegiScan. N/A indicates a bill without sponsors' party listed on LegiScan (including bills listed as a "committee bill").
Category	Category of the bill, detailed in the table below. Multiple categories are separated by commas.
Status	Most recent status of the bill in the legislature. May include links to relevant coverage of the bill.

Category Data Dictionary

Category	Definition	Example
limits voting options	Bills that create any kind of barrier to voting by reducing or eliminating a method of voting or voting assistance	Minnesota House Bill 943, which would ban ballot harvesting and require agents who assist voters in submitting ballots to sign a form and provide personal information
expanded voter ID requirements	Bills that introduce new requirements for ID to vote or register, or limit what kind of ID is acceptable	Colorado House Bill 1086, which would require all registered voters to provide proof of citizenship to vote
limits voting time	Bills that reduce the time to cast a ballot, whether in person or absentee, on voting day or in advance	Georgia House Bill 512, which would reduce the early voting period by one day and reduce voting hours
voter roll purge	Bills that introduce new requirements for triggering a voter roll purge or require more frequent purges	Virginia Senate Bill 1422, which would require the State Registrar of Vital Records to send weekly, rather than monthly, updates of deceased residents to the Department of Elections and orders the general registrar to “promptly” remove voters who are deceased or convicted of a felony
limiting/criminalizing election official role	Bills that make certain behavior by election officials a crime or reduces the authority of election officials	Wisconsin House Bill 198, which would prohibit election officials from correcting mistakes on absentee ballot certificates and creates penalties if the election official fails to post the error online
partisan election roles	Bills that shift authority from officials to partisan bodies	Arizona House Bill 2891, which would remove election litigation power from the secretary of state and gives it to the attorney general until 2023
increased voter surveillance	Bills that require or allow new methods of surveillance of voters or increase authority of poll watchers	Tennessee House Bill 1221, which would require a list of absentee-ballot applicants to be publicly posted