Constitutional Amendments on Your Ballot in November

When we head to the polls on November 3, we’ll be voting on more than just House and Senate candidates. There will also be three proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution on the ballot.

They cover three very different issues: reproductive freedom, marriage equality, and voting rights. Here’s a basic summary of what you’ll be deciding.

Question 1: Reproductive Freedom

This amendment would put a right to reproductive freedom directly into Virginia’s Constitution.

That would include decisions about contraception, fertility treatment, pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage care, and abortion.

The amendment would allow Virginia to regulate abortion later in pregnancy, while protecting abortion when a doctor determines it is necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or physical or mental health, or when the fetus is not viable.

In other words, supporters see this as putting reproductive rights into the Constitution so they can’t be changed as easily by future lawmakers. Opponents argue that the amendment goes too far and could limit the legislature’s ability to regulate abortion.

Question 2: Protecting Marriage Equality

Virginia’s Constitution still contains language saying that marriage is between a man and a woman—even though same-sex marriage has been legal in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges.

Question 2 would remove that language and replace it with a constitutional right for two adults to marry, regardless of sex, gender or race. So this amendment would essentially bring Virginia’s Constitution in line with the law as it currently exists.

Question 3: Voting Rights After a Felony

This amendment would change Virginia’s approach to restoring voting rights after a felony conviction.

Currently, a felony conviction results in the loss of voting rights, and the governor must individually restore those rights.

Under the proposed amendment, voting rights would be suspended while a person is incarcerated for a felony and would automatically return once the person is released.

It would also change the Constitution’s language concerning people who are found by a court to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting.

What will your VA ballot look like?

Here is the specific wording you will see on your ballot when you vote.

Question 1: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to (i) protect the freedom to make personal decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility care; (ii) protect doctors, nurses, and patients from being punished for these decisions; and (iii) allow for restrictions on access to abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy except when the patient’s health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive?

Question 2: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to (i) remove the ban on same-sex marriage; (ii) affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race; and (iii) require all legally valid marriages to be treated equally under the law?

Question 3: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended (i) to provide for the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth, (ii) to revise the qualifications of voters so that a person convicted of a felony is not entitled to vote during his period of incarceration but is automatically invested with the right to vote upon release from incarceration, and (iii) to update the existing prohibition on voting by persons found to be mentally incompetent to instead apply to persons who have been found to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting?

Whatever your position, these amendments are worth paying attention to. And because they’re constitutional amendments, your vote on November 3 will directly determine whether they become part of Virginia’s Constitution.