Virginia Constitutional Amendments on the November Ballot

This November, three proposed amendments to Virginia’s state constitution are on the ballot.

In Virginia, proposed amendments to the state constitution must first pass the General Assembly in two separate legislative sessions, with an election for the House of Delegates taking place in between. After the Virginia House and Senate approve the amendment a second time, it is placed on the ballot for voters to approve or reject in a referendum.

The first is the “Remove Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban Amendment.” If voted for, this amendment, as its name states, would repeal the constitutional provision that defined marriage as between one man and one woman, and add a provision stating, “Marriage is one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness.”

Additionally, the amendment would ban the state from denying a marriage license to two adults based on their sex, gender, or race.

If voted for, Virginia will be the fifth state to repeal a same-sex marriage ban, following Nevada, Hawaii, Colorado, and California.

The constitutional amendment that contained the current definition of marriage was first voted on in 2006, when Virginia voters approved it with 57.1% of the vote. However, in a 2014 decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ban and declared that “the choice of whether and whom to marry is an intensely personal decision that alters the course of an individual’s life. Denying same-sex couples this choice prohibits them from participating fully in our society, which is precisely the type of segregation that the Fourteenth Amendment cannot countenance."

The second proposed amendment is the “Virginia Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment.” This amendment would establish and define the right to reproductive freedom as “the right to make and effectuate one’s own decisions about all matters related to one’s pregnancy.”

The amendment would prohibit the state from prosecuting or punishing a mother or other individual for receiving help or helping with a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion.

Currently, in Virginia, abortion is legal up until the third trimester, and the state allows for exceptions to the ban based on the threat to the mother’s life or health.

Lastly, the proposed “Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Upon Release Amendment” aims to permit incarcerated people convicted of a felony to be able to vote again upon release. The amendment states that political rights, including voting, are “automatically restored upon release.”

The amendment also rewrites the constitution to prohibit voting by people found by a state court to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting, rather than the previous standard of prohibiting voting by people adjudicated mentally incompetent.