VirginiaBallot2026.info Election Day · November 3, 2026
Virginia voters

Two questions.Read beyond the summary.

Vote No on Ballot Questions 1 & 3

Question 1 · Reproductive freedom

Support abortion access. Reject this amendment.

Visible equity impact: Black women in Virginia are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes. Question 1 does not itself close that gap.

Abortion access matters. The amendment reaches further.

We support access to abortion and other reproductive care. Question 1 would create a fundamental right spanning prenatal care, childbirth, contraception, abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility care. Laws burdening that right must satisfy a narrowly defined compelling-interest test. Official text ↗

Our concern is the constitutional test, not access to care.

The text permits third-trimester regulation, while barring prohibition when a physician judges abortion medically indicated for life, physical health, mental health, or fetal nonviability. The concern is the breadth of the constitutional test. It is not a claim that doctors disappear.

What Question 1 does, and does not do, about that disparity.

The amendment protects a broad range of reproductive decisions. It does not itself add prenatal providers, postpartum coverage, transportation, or accountability. That limitation is not evidence that reproductive rights cause the disparity; it is a reason to demand direct maternal-health policy alongside any constitutional debate. Virginia health context ↗

The No case: Support abortion access and reproductive freedom without adopting this sweeping constitutional test. Pair durable rights with direct investment in the maternal-health systems that can reduce unequal outcomes.

Question 3 · Voting qualifications

Restoration at release, regardless of offense

Visible equity impact: A No vote preserves disenfranchisement beyond incarceration unless Virginia adopts a replacement rule; historically, that burden has fallen disproportionately on Black residents.

Political rights return upon release, not completion of the full sentence.

The amendment automatically restores political rights after incarceration ends. Its text does not wait for probation or parole to finish. Official text ↗

No felony category is excluded from automatic restoration.

The same release-based rule applies after violent and nonviolent felony convictions. A No position can support a nondiscretionary process while preferring restoration after the complete sentence ends.

An alternative No position must confront the disparate impact.

Virginia's own legislative history documents the disproportionate impact felony disenfranchisement has had on Black residents. A credible alternative should be automatic, nondiscretionary, transparent, and audited for disparate impact after the full sentence. It should not return to arbitrary gatekeeping. Legislative history ↗

Language matters: mental illness is not the same as incapacity.

The proposal keeps a court-based bar for a person found unable to understand the act of voting. “People with mental illness” or “mentally unwell individuals” is not an accurate substitute for that legal standard.

The No case: Replace discretionary restoration with a fair, automatic process after the full sentence, not a constitutional rule triggered solely by release from incarceration.