On Election Day, Nov. 3, West Virginia voters will consider a constitutional amendment permitting only United States citizens to vote in state elections — the thing is, that’s already the law.
Here’s why it’s on your ballot and what you should know.
No major effect … at least for now
Though the amendment looks lengthy, only a small part of it is new language.
The constitution, now, says that voters must be citizens of the state.
The amendment would change that to, “Only citizens of the United States who are citizens of this state shall be entitled to vote at all elections held within the counties in which they respectively reside.”
But in practice, the amendment doesn’t change West Virginia elections — noncitizens are already prohibited from voting.
The citizenship requirement is specified in state law.
In a video Secretary of State Kris Warner and Chief Legal Counsel Dave Cook released about the amendment last week, Cook noted that it doesn’t change voter requirements — people won’t be required to prove their U.S. citizenship by showing birth certificates or similar documents.
But Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson and the lead sponsor of Joint Resolution 9, which made way for the amendment proposal, said she wants to see further legislation focused on noncitizen voting that would require such verification.
Rucker, a naturalized citizen from Venezuela, said she introduced it when she realized the language was missing from the constitution and because she believes people should prove they are U.S. citizens while registering to vote.
“I became a citizen after waiting my turn, spending my money and doing it the right way,” she said.
The House of Delegates and state Senate unanimously passed the proposal.
If voters approve the amendment, it would be harder to change in the future than the Legislature’s usual process of voting to repeal or pass a law. The West Virginia constitution is the supreme law of the state.
The Legislature would have to pass another resolution proposing the repeal of the amendment and put it on the ballot again. Repeal would take a majority vote of citizens.
Is noncitizen voting a problem?
Judy Ball, co-president of the League of Women Voters of West Virginia, said her organization opposes the amendment because it promotes harmful, divisive myths and reduces trust in the electoral process.
She also noted that if additional proof of identity documents were required in the future, the challenge and expense of securing those documents could make it harder to vote for West Virginians.
“It’s trying to solve a problem that does not exist,” Ball, of Morgantown, said. “You repeat a lie often enough, people start believing it.”
Ball noted that people must already attest during voter registration that they’re citizens, and that it’s a deportable offense for a noncitizen to register or vote.
West Virginia’s constitutional amendment vote isn’t happening in a vacuum.
President Donald Trump has been falsely claiming that noncitizen voting is a rampant problem, and experts have increasingly questioned the basis for those claims.
In 2025, many state election officials began using the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program to check voter citizenship. They found only 0.04% of voter verification cases were returned as noncitizens.
Still, five other states have introduced ballot measures requiring U.S. citizenship for voting.
Trump has threatened the U.S. Congress by saying he will refuse to sign any legislation until lawmakers pass the SAVE America Act, which would impose much more stringent requirements on all voters nationwide to prove their citizenship.
As for documents proving citizenship, the Bipartisan Policy Center said these requirements would make voting harder for even eligible citizens like married women and others, who often lack documents like birth certificates and passports.
Full text of West Virginia’s proposed amendment
When you’re in the voting booth, you’ll see the amendment has this title, summary and its full text:
Title of Amendment: “Amendment 1: Citizenship Requirement to Vote in West Virginia Elections Amendment”
Summary of Purpose: “This amendment provides that in all elections held in West Virginia only citizens of the United States who are citizens of this state are qualified to vote.”
Full Text of the Amendment: §4-1. Only citizens of the United States who are citizens of this state shall be entitled to vote at all elections held within the counties in which they respectively reside; but a person who is a minor, or who has been declared mentally incompetent by a court of competent jurisdiction, or who is under conviction of treason, felony or bribery in an election, or who has not been a resident of the state and of the county in which he or she offers to vote, for 30 days next preceding such offer, shall not be permitted to vote while such disability continues; and, a person in the military, naval, or marine service of the United States shall not be deemed a resident of this state by reason of being stationed therein.
