The seven battleground states, which will decide the winner of the White House race, changed election laws ahead of the Nov. 5 election, including new voter ID requirements, bans on “Zuckerbucks,” expanded voting by mail and signature requirements on absentee ballots.

These new laws are poised to impact the outcome of the presidential election, which polls indicate is nearly tied, and could also influence which party controls the House and Senate. 

Less than two months from the election, laws are still shifting in key swing states.

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WISCONSIN

Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election was one of the closest in the nation and was followed by claims that the contest was rigged to ensure more ballots were counted for Mr. Biden, who won the state by 20,000 votes or less than 1% of the vote.

 The GOP-led Wisconsin legislature since then has tried to make changes to the state’s election laws to shorten the voting window and ensure nobody votes illegally. 

Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, vetoed all of the proposals, leaving most of Wisconsin’s 2020 election laws in place. But state voters this year made a significant change, passing a referendum banning private funding and non-governmental equipment from Wisconsin elections. 

The new law, adopted in several other swing states,  means money from billionaire donors can’t be spent by election officials to hire workers to collect ballots or to purchase equipment, such as “mobile voting vans,” to mine absentee ballot boxes or hunt for voters. 

“There is no money to administer all that, Ronald Heuer, president of Wisconsin Voter Alliance, a watchdog group, said. 

Critics say the $400 million donated in 2020 by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was used to bring out the vote disproportionately in the deep blue districts of swing states. Roughly $10 million was spent in Wisconsin. 

While Mr. Zuckerberg has ended making contributions to public elections, the Wisconsin law blocks funding from other donors or private organizations still involved in election funding, including the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which administered much of the “Zuckerbucks” election funding in 2020.

PENNSYLVANIA

Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state could require voters to write the correct date on their mail ballot envelope for their vote to be counted. The law, contested by the ACLU, resulted in thousands of ballots getting tossed out in recent elections because they were not dated correctly by the voter. Those flawed ballots, which could number in the thousands, won’t be counted in 2024, either, which could tip what is expected to be a very close race.

President Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020 by 80,000 votes or less than 2% of the vote. Polls now show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump in a dead heat.

In another change, eligible voters are automatically registered to vote under a new system implemented in 2023 by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, which could drive up turnout.

 The state now requires mail-in ballots to arrive by Election Day, eliminating a three-day, post-election grace period allowed in 2020. 

Ban on Zuckerbucks? Yes.

MICHIGAN

The Democratic-controlled state government in Michigan passed a dozen news laws since the 2020 election to expand voting and loosen restrictions that were put in place to prevent voter fraud. The 2020 election wasn’t as close as in other battlegrounds. Mr. Trump lost to Mr. Biden by more than 150,000 votes or nearly 3% of the vote. This year’s race is poised to be much closer. Polls show Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris statistically tied.

Since 2020, Michigan expanded the list of valid voter identification at polling sites to include military, student and tribal ID cards and passed a law requiring at least nine days of early voting. Another new Michigan law requires at least one “secure drop box” for ballots in every municipality or for every 15,000 registered voters. The boxes, which critics say lack sufficient security and encourage fraud, must be accessible 24 hours a day for 40 days before an election, up until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

The state also established a permanent absentee voter list that allows voters who sign up to permanently receive a ballot by mail in all future elections without having to request one and opened “pre-registration”  for 16-year-olds, which will allow them to vote once they turn 18.

Ban on Zuckerbucks? No.

GEORGIA

In Georgia, where Mr. Trump unsuccessfully sought to convince election officials in 2020 that votes in his favor were suppressed, new laws are in place that the Republican-controlled state government said will increase public confidence in the outcome.

Critics of the new laws say they will decrease voter access, but so far, Georgia’s elections have shown an increase in voter participation.

The new laws give voters less time to request a mail-in ballot, add new voter ID requirements, reduce and restrict ballot drop-box use and bar election offices from mailing ballots to voters who have not requested them.

Following a record number of mail-in votes in 2020, Georgia increased voter ID requirements. 

To vote by mail, voters without a driver’s license or state identification card on their registrations must first verify their identities with other documents, such as a utility bill or a bank statement. 

The state also banned mobile voting vans, which critics say were used to drive up turnout in Democratic-heavy precincts.

Ban on Zuckerbucks? Yes.

ARIZONA

The battle over election laws is still underway in Arizona.

In August, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Arizona Republicans to reinstate a law requiring election officials to verify proof of citizenship of voters in local and state elections.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard additional arguments in the case on Tuesday. 

Another law will make it easier and faster for those convicted of multiple felonies to restore their right to vote. The state also expanded hours for in-person voting before Election Day and passed a law making it illegal to mail ballots to voters who did not request them. 

Ban on Zuckerbucks? Yes.

NORTH CAROLINA

The biggest change in North Carolina’s election law imposes new voter ID requirements.

For the first time, state residents will have to show a photo ID at the polls.

The state also changed the deadline for mail-in ballots, eliminating the three-day grace period for ballots postmarked on Election Day.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal think tank, if the Election Day deadline had been imposed in 2020, more than 11,600 ballots would have been thrown out. 

Ban on Zuckerbucks? Yes.

NEVADA

The Silver State codified many of the 2020 election changes made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, most significantly, mail-in balloting.

Every active registered voter in Nevada will receive a mail-in ballot, and each county will have “widely available” mail ballot drop boxes, according to election officials.

Ballots will be counted if postmarked by Election Day and received by the state election department by 5 p.m. on the fourth day after the election.

Nevada made another key election change in May. 

Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar announced that election officials will begin counting mail ballots when they arrive instead of waiting for the polls to close on Election Day. The change could speed up results. In 2020 and 2022, the state election officials took several days to tabulate the results after being swamped with mail-in ballots. 

Ban on Zuckerbucks? No.