WEST virginia legislature

2024 regular session

Introduced

House Joint Resolution 21

By Delegates Heckert, Zatezalo, Foggin, Smith, Fehrenbacher, McGeehan, Street, Thorne, Maynor, Longanacre, and Phillips

[Introduced January 23, 2024; Referred

 to the Committee on the Judiciary]

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia amending section 1, Article IV thereof to prohibit persons not United States citizens from voting in any election held within this state; numbering and designating such proposed amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed amendment.

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:

That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to the voters of the state at the next general election to be held in the year 2024, which proposed amendment is that section 1, Article IV thereof, be amended, to read as follows:

ARTICLE IV. ELECTION AND OFFICERS.

4-1.  Election and officers.

The citizens of the state shall be entitled to vote at all elections held within the counties in which they respectively reside; but no 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 offers to vote, for thirty days next preceding such offer, shall be permitted to vote while such disability continues; but no person in the military, naval or marine service of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this state by reason of being stationed therein, nor shall any person who is not a citizen of the United States be entitled to vote at any election held within this state.

Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of article eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment 1" and designated as the "Citizens Voting Amendment" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "The purpose of this amendment is to recognize that persons who are not citizens of the United States cannot vote in West Virginia elections."

NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to amend section 1 of Article IV of the West Virginia Constitution, to prohibit non-citizens from voting.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.