Virginia ballot

Virginia voters will decide Question 1, a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Virginia on reproductive freedom. The General Assembly referred it to voters after approving it in two sessions, as the state constitution requires. A yes vote approves the amendment and a no vote rejects it; the official explanation of each outcome is below.

A yes vote: Per the official Explanation for Voters, the amendment would add to the Virginia Constitution's Bill of Rights the fundamental right to make and carry out decisions about a person's own reproductive care, with only certain specific exceptions; it specifically allows the state to pass laws regulating abortion care in the third trimester, but requires any such law to allow abortion care when medically needed to protect the life and health of the pregnant person or because the fetus is not viable.

A no vote: The Constitution stays as it is. Per the official Explanation for Voters, the Virginia Constitution currently does not explicitly provide a right to reproductive freedom, nor does it explicitly protect or prohibit certain kinds of health care procedures or decisions.

Virginia voters will decide Question 2, a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Virginia on marriage. The General Assembly referred it to voters after approving it in two sessions, as the state constitution requires. A yes vote approves the amendment and a no vote rejects it; the official explanation of each outcome is below.

A yes vote: Per the official Explanation for Voters, the amendment removes the prohibition on marriages between persons of the same sex or gender from the Constitution's Bill of Rights and replaces it with the fundamental right to marry, requiring the state to recognize and treat equally under the law any lawful marriage between two adult persons regardless of sex, gender, or race, and prohibiting the state from denying a marriage license to two adults because of their sex, gender, or race.

A no vote: The Constitution stays as it is. Per the official Explanation for Voters, the Constitution currently prohibits marriages and equivalent legal relationships between persons of the same sex or gender; that prohibition is not enforceable because of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, but it remains in the text and would become enforceable again if that decision were overturned.

Virginia voters will decide Question 3, a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Virginia on the right to vote and restoration of voting rights after a felony conviction. The General Assembly referred it to voters after approving it in two sessions, as the state constitution requires. A yes vote approves the amendment and a no vote rejects it; the official explanation of each outcome is below.

A yes vote: Per the official Explanation for Voters, the amendment enshrines the fundamental right of all qualified persons to vote, with exceptions only for persons serving a sentence of incarceration for a felony and persons a court determines do not understand the act of voting. A person convicted of a felony would lose the right to vote only while incarcerated and would get it back on release without applying to the Governor; removing the vote for mental incapacity would require a specific court finding that the person does not understand the act of voting.

A no vote: The Constitution stays as it is. Per the official Explanation for Voters, a person convicted of any felony currently loses the right to vote for life unless the Governor restores that person's rights, which is the only means of getting the right to vote back after a felony conviction.