Overview of 2026 Constitutional Amendments

The 2026 General Election in Virginia will include three Constitutional Amendments on the ballot. A majority vote is needed to pass each one and enact it into the Constitution of Virginia.

Adoption of these amendments will enshrine important civil rights into the Constitution: marriage equality, reproductive freedom, and protections for the right to vote.

BACKGROUND

Marriage Equality: In 1967, in Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned laws banning interracial marriage and struck down Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924. 

In 1996 the U.S. Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman, banning federal recognition of same sex marriages, and allowing states to refuse recognition of same sex marriages granted in other states. 

In 2006 Virginia voters passed a Constitutional Amendment that defined marriage as “only a union between one man and one woman”. 

In 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bans on same sex marriage are unconstitutional. This decision nullified the language in the Constitution of Virginia.

If the Supreme Court were to overturn their 2015 decision, the language in the Constitution of Virginia would then be in effect again. Therefore, the proposed amendment of 2026 would remove the 2006 same sex marriage ban language and officially recognize that any two adults “may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race”.

Reproductive Freedom: The proposed amendment of 2026 would add a new section to the Constitution of Virginia guaranteeing an individual’s reproductive freedom as a fundamental right. The new language upholds a person’s ability to make and carry out decisions related to their own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care. It protects healthcare workers and other individuals who assist in such care. It allows for restrictions on abortion in the third trimester, but not when a physician determines it is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the patient or that the fetus is not viable.

Protecting the Right to Vote: The Constitution of Virginia enacted in 1902 imposed a lifetime ban on voting for anyone convicted of a felony. Restoration of the right to vote could only be obtained from the Governor.

In recent years, Governors Bob McDonnell, Terry McAuliffe, and Ralph Northam all created forms of automatic restoration to applicants, but Governor Glenn Youngkin ended automatic restoration and returned to a process of evaluating individual applicants.

The proposed amendment of 2026 adds language making it clear that voting is a fundamental right for all who meet the basic citizenship, age, and residency requirements; automatically restores the right to vote to convicted felons upon completion of their incarceration; and updates language currently used to disenfranchise anyone adjudicated to be mentally incompetent with language referring instead to a lack of capacity to understand the act of voting (people requiring assistance in managing their financial affairs can frequently still understand voting).

BALLOT LANGUAGE

Expected ballot language (taken from the enactment bills HB612, HB781, and SB6):

Question: 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: 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: 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?