In November 2026, Virginia voters will decide on a constitutional amendment that, if passed, would restore voting rights to all formerly-incarcerated voters upon release from prison and upon completion of further action, including parole, probation or payment of fines. Currently, formerly-incarcerated individuals must apply to the governor for restoration.
The Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901–02 enacted a new constitution which imposed a lifetime ban on registering to vote for anyone who had been convicted of a felony, only allowing for felons to receive restoration of their voting rights from the governor. In addition, the convention imposed a system of poll taxes along with literacy and understanding requirements to vote that had the effect of restricting the electorate. The outcome was almost immediate disenfranchising of blacks and half the previous number of whites voting. [1]
As recently as 2016, at least 7 percent of adult citizens in Virginia, including 22 percent of African-American voters in Virginia, were disfranchised from voting due to the lifetime ban on former felons. [2]
Governors Bob McDonnell, Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam all pursued forms of automated restoration to those who applied, but Governor Glenn Youngkin ended the policy of automated restoration in favor of case-by-case restoration.
A joint resolution to initiate the amendment was passed by the General Assembly in February 2021. [3] [4] After Democrats lost the House in the following elections, the bill was passed in the Senate but was defeated in a House committee in 2022. [5]
HJ2 / SJ248 was legislatively initiated by the Virginia Senate on March 24, 2025. The equivalent language in HJ2/SJ2 was passed by the House on January 14, 2026 and affirmed in the Senate on January 16, 2026, sending the amendment to voters for approval. [6] [7]
If agreed to by voters, Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution of Virginia will be amended as follows: [8]
Section 1. Qualifications of voters.
(a) In elections by the people, the qualifications of voters shall be as follows: Each voter shall be a citizen of the United States, shall be eighteen years of age, shall fulfill the residence requirements set forth in
this sectionsubsection (b), and shall be registered to vote pursuant to this article. Every person who meets these qualifications shall have the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth, and such right shall not be abridged by law, except that:(1) No person who has been convicted of a felony shall be
qualifiedentitled to voteunless his civil rights have been restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority. during any period of incarceration for such felony conviction, but every such person, upon release from incarceration for that felony conviction and without further action required of him, shall be invested with all political rights, including the right to vote; and
As prescribed by law, no(2) No person who has been adjudicatedto be mentally incompetentby a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting shall bequalifiedentitled to vote during such period of incapacity until hiscompetencycapacity has been reestablished as prescribed by law.(b) The residence requirements shall be that each voter shall be a resident of the Commonwealth and of the precinct where he votes. Residence, for all purposes of qualification to vote, requires both domicile and a place of abode. The General Assembly may provide for persons who are employed overseas, and their spouses and dependents residing with them, and who are qualified to vote except for relinquishing their place of abode in the Commonwealth while overseas, to vote in the Commonwealth subject to conditions and time limits defined by law. The General Assembly may provide for persons who are qualified to vote except for having moved their residence from one precinct to another within the Commonwealth to continue to vote in a former precinct subject to conditions and time limits defined by law. The General Assembly may also provide, in elections for President and Vice President of the United States, alternatives to registration for new residents of the Commonwealth.
(c) Any person who will be qualified with respect to age to vote at the next general election shall be permitted to register in advance and also to vote in any intervening primary or special election.
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