Name every 12 states that allow for election cancellation/postponement in extreme weather
Executive summary
The available reporting does not provide a definitive list of "every 12 states" that permit cancellation or postponement of elections for extreme weather, and therefore a claim naming exactly 12 states cannot be substantiated from the sources provided; several sources instead describe broad patterns (many states have emergency election laws) and cite a handful of specific examples such as North Carolina, Iowa, Texas, Louisiana, and New York [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. Federal analyses and legal scholars stress that while states possess varying emergency authorities to delay or reschedule elections, the ability to cancel or indefinitely postpone national contests is tightly constrained by federal law and constitutional deadlines [6] [7] [8].
1. What the reporting actually shows about state authority
Multiple authoritative reviews—Congressional Research Service analyses and academic law reviews—explain that many states have statutory mechanisms to postpone, extend, or reschedule elections in the event of emergencies, and that those mechanisms vary widely in scope and who holds the power (governor, chief election official, legislature, or courts) [6] [9] [10]. The National Association of Secretaries of State survey reported examples of state statutes and practices and noted that emergency powers can be exercised at different levels or require different triggers, indicating heterogeneity rather than a uniform "12-state" rule [1].
2. Specific states named repeatedly in the reporting
A small set of states is explicitly described in the supplied materials as having statutory or practical experience with postponement or cancellation: North Carolina’s chief elections official has emergency authority to conduct or modify elections disrupted by disasters or extremely inclement weather [2]; Iowa’s Secretary of State may exercise emergency powers to postpone an election that does not involve a federal office until the following Tuesday in certain weather/disaster scenarios [1]; Texas has statutory procedures allowing cancellation of certain local elections and has recently updated law touching cancellation tied to disaster declarations [3]; Louisiana’s governor used emergency powers to postpone a presidential primary during the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrating executive-level rescheduling in practice [4]; and New York’s decision to cancel a presidential primary prompted litigation and discussion of limits on such actions [5]. These examples are documented in the provided sources, but they do not add up to the specific number "12" without further state-by-state citations [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
3. Why the “12 states” formulation is unsupported by these sources
The sources that map state authority emphasize breadth: at least 45 states have some law addressing Election Day emergencies according to a CRS summary of NCSL/NASS reporting, and other overviews note that a mixture of statutes, gubernatorial powers, election-official authority, court orders, and legislative action can be used to alter election administration in an emergency [4] [1] [11]. One EveryCRS report and law-review scholarship explain the legal framework and constraints but do not produce a neat list of exactly 12 states that uniformly "allow cancellation/postponement for extreme weather" [6] [9]. Because the supplied documentation neither enumerates a specific set of 12 states nor offers a comprehensive table of which states’ statutes reach general-election postponement for federal contests, it is not possible on this record to responsibly assert “every 12 states” by name [6] [4].
4. Federal limits and legal risk if states try to cancel presidential/general elections
Legal commentary repeatedly cautions that while states have some authority to delay or extend the mechanics of an election in emergencies, federal Election Day statutes, constitutional text, and judicial precedent constrain the extent to which states (or federal actors) can nullify or indefinitely postpone federal contests—particularly presidential elections—so any state-level action would likely prompt litigation and complex federal-state legal disputes [6] [7] [8]. Academic work describes postponement as a "severe, disfavored remedy" to be used only in rare cases, and the Congress/constitutional framework limits executive or unilateral nationwide postponement [9] [7].
5. Bottom line for anyone seeking a list of 12 states
The best-supported statement from these sources is that many states have emergency election laws and specific examples exist (Iowa, North Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, New York among them), but the materials provided do not contain a verified roster of exactly twelve states that authorize postponement/cancellation for extreme weather; compiling such a list would require a state-by-state statutory survey or the underlying NASS/ NCSL dataset that the CRS and NASS reports reference but did not reproduce here [1] [4] [11].