← Election Series · Down-ballot coverage · West Virginia
Our call — vote YES
The measure
The Citizenship Voting Requirement Amendment is a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on West Virginia's November 3, 2026 ballot. Article IV of the state constitution currently reads: "The citizens of the state shall be entitled to vote." The amendment rewrites the sentence to say what it should say: "Only citizens of the state who are citizens of the United States are entitled to vote" at all elections held in the counties where they reside. Federal law has barred noncitizen voting in federal elections since 1996, but it does not govern state and local elections — and municipalities in several states have used that gap to extend local voting rights to noncitizens. Seventeen states already have "only citizens" language in their constitutions; voters in every state that has decided a citizenship amendment from 2018 to 2025 approved it.
What YES does
A yes vote makes U.S. citizenship an explicit, exclusive condition of voting in every West Virginia election.
What NO does
A no vote leaves the older wording, which names citizens as entitled to vote without expressly excluding anyone else.
The math
No fiscal note for this measure was published on its Ballotpedia page.
OUR CALL
Our call: YES.
Voting is the defining act of a citizen; a constitution that says "only citizens" leaves no seam for a city council to pry open later. West Virginia is not fixing a scandal — it is closing a loophole before anyone exploits it, the cheapest kind of election integrity there is. Vote yes.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Sources
- Ballotpedia — West Virginia Citizenship Voting Requirement Amendment (2026) — https://ballotpedia.org/West_Virginia_Citizenship_Voting_Requirement_Amendment_(2026) (accessed October 25, 2026)
- Ballotpedia — 2026 ballot measures — https://ballotpedia.org/2026_ballot_measures
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.