Des Moines, IA -- On March 2, the New York state legislature voted to pass key legislation to address the COVID-19 outbreak. Titled, “Appropriating Funds for COVID-19 Coronavirus Response,” the legislation was voted on, passed, and signed into law within 48 hours. A week later, Minnesota followed New York’s lead and created their own COVID-19 specific legislation. Three days later, Washington state did the same. And so on and so forth, until, by April 15, Vote Smart researchers had found that a total of 28 states had voted on key legislation in place to fight COVID-19 and protect their local communities.
As the chart and map below indicate, states like New York and Minnesota were quicker to act than others. It would take weeks for the number of states with specific COVID-19 legislation to hit the double digits.
As of this week, states such as Illinois were still working on crafting and passing key legislation. Vote Smart researchers are continuing to monitor state legislatures across the country.
As the COVID-19 outbreak has continued to dominate headlines and social media, this Vote Smart data shows that it has also dominated state legislatures across the country. 37 states have chosen to craft their own COVID-19 key legislation, providing their constituents with state-specific rules and regulations and setting themselves apart from the 13 that have not voted on key legislation.
*Updated on July 6, 2020.