Editorial
Virginians who are casting ballots in the ongoing elections that conclude on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, are being asked whether or not to approve three proposed amendments to the state constitution. The three questions being asked of voters are as follows:
Proposed Constitutional Amendment 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?
Proposed Constitutional Amendment 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?
Proposed Constitutional Amendment 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?
All three of these proposed amendments were approved by the General Assembly during the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions and are now being presented to state voters that, if approved, would become part of Virginia’s state constitution. The measures were introduced by Democratic legislators and approved by Democratic majorities in the General Assembly’s two most recent sessions.
Because they were introduced and supported by Democratic legislators, many are viewing the proposed amendments through their partisan perspectives. We would argue that the proposed amendments aren’t inherently partisan in nature and should be considered individually on their own merits.
Amendment Question 3, for instance, has bipartisan origins and has drawn the support of some Republicans. Former Gov. Bob Mc-Donnell, a Republican who served from 2010 to 2014, initiated the effort to expedite the process of restoring voting rights to convicted felons who had completed their prison sentences. In fact, he called for a constitutional amendment to this effect in his final state of the commonwealth address. McDonnell’s two immediate successors – both Democrats, Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Gov. Ralph Northam – each restored the voting rights of more than 100,000 convicted felons who had completed their prison sentences.
The streamlining of the process to restoring voting rights was halted under the next governor, Republican Glenn Younkin, who chose to consider each case individually and therefore greatly reduced the number of former convicts who regained their rights to vote. Northam’s successor, current Gov. Abigail Spanberger, has resumed the expedited restoration process, having thus far restored the voting rights of more than 60,000 Virginians who have completed their prison sentences.
We think it’s only right that the restoration of voting rights for felons who have completed their prison sentences not be left up to the whims of an individual governor. Virginia is one of only three states that retain this practice, which is a relic of the Jim Crow era to disenfranchise mostly African American voters.
An argument could be made that Amendment Question 2 should merit bipartisan support as well. The right to marry among consenting adults, regardless of sexual orientation, gender or race, appears to enjoy broad support among the general population now – unlike in 2006, when a state constitution amendment was enacted that banned gay marriage. That amendment was rendered moot in 2015 by a U.S. Supreme Court decision, on a 5-4 vote, that found that all states must recognize lawfully licensed marriages of gay couples.
Amendment Question 1 is the most partisan measure being presented to voters. Most Republicans remain firmly opposed to abortion while Democrats largely favor giving women the right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy in the first two trimesters. The latter of these views was the law of the land from 1973, with the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court ruling, until 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court, with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, overturned Roe v. Wade.
We suggest voters view each of the proposed state constitutional amendments individually and consider all of the ramifications of each before casting their ballots.
