Yellow Jacket Initiative
Ballot questions · Virginia

Virginia Question 3: The right to vote, and voting after a felony conviction

Constitutional Amendment · On every Virginia ballot · Election Day Tuesday, November 3, 2026

This page explains what the question does. It does not tell you how to vote.

Update, October 23, 2026: We previously wrote that we could not confirm whether the January 22, 2026 order in King v. O’Bannon had been appealed or stayed. The court’s August 19, 2026 opinion states that the defendants did not appeal it, and the court that day directed them to continue implementing it. We have revised that sentence. It originally read: “We could not confirm from a primary source whether the order has been appealed or stayed.” Whether anyone appealed or sought a stay of the August 19 order is not established: the public docket we can read shows no filing after August 28, 2026, and a missing entry is not proof that nothing was filed.

What your ballot says

Proposed Constitutional Amendment Question 3

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?

In plain terms

Question 3 rewrites the part of Virginia’s Constitution that says who may vote (Article II, Section 1). It makes three changes.

1. A stated “fundamental right to vote.” Anyone who meets the existing qualifications (a U.S. citizen, 18 years old, a resident of Virginia and of the voting precinct, and registered) “shall have the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth, and such right shall not be abridged by law,” with two exceptions, below.

2. Felony convictions.

3. Mental capacity.

The official explanation also says that “with the right to vote, a person also has the right to be a juror, the right to be elected to an office, and the right to be a notary public.”

Two official sources describe current law differently. The official explanation for voters (approved by the General Assembly’s Joint Privileges and Elections Committee on June 22, 2026) says a felony conviction of any kind removes the right to vote for life unless the Governor restores it. The explanation, approved June 22, 2026, does not mention the January 22, 2026 court order described next. The Department of Elections’ own page “Felony Convictions and Voter Eligibility” says something narrower: under a federal court order, a felony conviction now removes voting rights only for certain “common law felonies.” That order (King v. O’Bannon, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, No. 3:23cv408, final order filed January 22, 2026) declared that the defendants, Virginia election officials sued in their official capacities, had violated the Virginia Readmission Act, and permanently barred them from using Article II, Section 1 to violate it. It ordered that, by May 1, 2026, they not deny a person’s attempt to register or cancel an existing registration except for convictions of eleven common-law felonies: arson, burglary, escape and rescue from a prison or jail, larceny, manslaughter, mayhem, murder, rape, robbery, sodomy, and suicide. The Department’s page says the state has identified three statutory offenses that disqualify a voter under the order: murder (§ 18.2-32), voluntary manslaughter (§ 18.2-35) and involuntary manslaughter (§ 18.2-36). People convicted of those offenses still need the Governor to restore their rights. The Department’s page says that people convicted of other felonies cannot register or vote while physically incarcerated, and that their right to register is restored automatically when they are released. The court’s August 19, 2026 opinion states that the defendants did not appeal the January 22 order. That day the court directed them to continue implementing it (Opinion, ECF 277; Order, ECF 278). We have not found any later appeal or stay; the public docket we can read runs through August 28, 2026. [Updated October 23, 2026; see the note at the top of this page.] The text of the Constitution itself has not changed.

What the amendment’s text does and does not say:

What a vote YES does

The amendment becomes part of the Constitution on January 1, 2027, if a majority of those voting approve it. From then on, a felony conviction removes the right to vote only while the person is incarcerated for it, and the right comes back on release without action by the Governor. The Constitution also states a fundamental right to vote, and the mental-capacity exception is limited to a court finding that a person cannot understand the act of voting.

What a vote NO does

Article II, Section 1 stays as it is. On its face, the Constitution would still bar anyone convicted of a felony from voting until “the Governor or other appropriate authority” restores their civil rights, and would still bar anyone “adjudicated to be mentally incompetent” until competency is reestablished. As described above, the Department of Elections says a federal court order currently limits which felony convictions it treats as disqualifying.

Who put it on the ballot

The Virginia General Assembly. A constitutional amendment must pass both houses by “a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses,” then pass again by a majority of all members elected to each house, at the first regular session after the next House of Delegates election or a later special session of that same General Assembly. The public vote may come no sooner than 90 days after final passage (Constitution of Virginia, Article XII, Section 1). The 2026 resolutions record that the 2025 version passed by that majority.

First passage: 2025 session. Two identical resolutions passed:

Second passage: 2026 session, after the November 2025 House of Delegates election.

Ballot law. Two identical bills set the November 3, 2026 vote, the ballot wording and the January 1, 2027 effective date:

Cost

The Department of Planning and Budget’s fiscal impact statements for HB 963 and SB 6 estimate a general-fund cost of $205,000 in fiscal year 2027, with no cost shown for any other year (fiscal 2026 through 2031), for the Department of Elections to meet its public-notice duties: newspaper advertisements, posters and pamphlets about statewide referendums. Both statements say a budget amendment is necessary (Item 77). Both statements give the same figure. They do not say whether this cost is separate from, or shared with, the notice costs for the other two amendments on the ballot. The statements list no other cost and no effect on state revenue.

Sources

Checked against these documents on October 19, 2026; the King v. O’Bannon passage rechecked against the court’s August 19, 2026 opinion and order and the public docket on October 23, 2026. Found an error? Tell us.