What’s on Your Ballot?
ON THE BALLOT IN NOVEMBER —
OUR CANDIDATES AND THREE
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.
The Republican Primary in August sent us an important message: too many Republicans stayed home. If we bring that same level of participation to November 3rd, don’t expect our candidates to win.
The future of Virginia will be decided by those who vote.
If we want safe communities, excellent schools, affordable living, and leaders who will protect our freedoms and constitutional rights, then we must show up at the ballot box. Elections are not won by the loudest voices—they are won by the people who vote.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
Please take a few minutes today to make sure:
✅ You are registered to vote.
✅ Your college student is registered and has a plan to vote.
✅ Your family and friends are ready to participate.
This November, Republicans have the opportunity to elect General Bert Mizusawato the U.S. Senate and Doug Ollivant to U.S. Congress, representing Virginia’s 7th District.
In the ballot booth, Virginians will also be asked to vote on three amendments to the Virginia Constitution.
If the April Special Election taught us anything, it is this: do not assume the short question printed on your ballot tells you everything contained in the constitutional language you are approving.
We saw this with the redistricting amendment in April. The words voters saw in the voting booth did not tell the entire story. Now we have three more constitutional questions on the ballot in November.
The Family Foundation of Virginia has gone through the actual language behind Questions 1 and 2, line by line, and produced two “redliner” explainers showing voters what is being added, what is being removed, and what they believe the legal consequences could be.
Every voter should understand what is actually being placed in our Constitution before voting and we recommend you VOTE NO on all three proposed amendments.
QUESTION 1: REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
The ballot describes Question 1 largely in terms of protecting decisions involving contraception, pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage care and fertility treatment. But the actual constitutional language goes considerably further. The amendment would establish a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” for “every individual.”
There are several provisions voters must understand:
- The amendment says “every individual.” It does not say “every adult.” MINORS ARE INDIVIDUALS. This language could provide grounds for challenging Virginia’s existing parental-consent requirements involving abortion.
- This may place existing abortion regulations — and future laws passed by the General Assembly — in constitutional jeopardy.
- The ballot tells voters that the Commonwealth could regulate abortion in the third trimester. There is more to that sentence. The amendment would prohibit the Commonwealth from banning a third-trimester abortion when a physician determines it is medically indicated to protect the woman’s physical OR mental health, or determines that the fetus is not viable. The inclusion of “mental health,” combined with the professional judgment of a single physician, could make meaningful late-term restrictions substantially more difficult to enforce.
- The amendment also protects people who “aid or assist” another person in exercising the constitutional right, provided that person voluntarily consents.
Courts would ultimately determine how some of these provisions apply. But the words themselves are in the amendment. And voters deserve to see them.
Read more here:Amendment 1 — Reproductive Freedom Redliner
QUESTION 2: MARRIAGE
The ballot language focuses heavily on eliminating Virginia’s existing constitutional prohibition against same-sex marriage. However, same-sex marriage is already legal in Virginia and has been since 2014.
So, what else changes?
Virginia’s Constitution currently contains the words “one man and one woman.”
Question 2 would remove that language and replace it with a constitutional right permitting marriage between “two adult persons.”
But there is another change voters should pay particularly close attention to.
The amendment says marriage cannot be denied based on:
“sex, gender, or race.” Why both sex AND gender?
Placing “gender” in the Virginia Constitution as something legally distinct from “sex” may have consequences extending well beyond marriage.
That language could eventually be cited in constitutional litigation involving gender identity, schools, parental rights, women’s sports, privacy, businesses and government policy.
The amendment itself does not say, for example, that it changes women’s sports policies. But it does deliberately use both “sex” and “gender.”
That is something voters deserve to know before changing Virginia’s Constitution.
The proposed amendment contains no explicit religious-liberty protection for clergy or government officials with religious objections involving certain marriages. They argue that omission could create future legal conflicts.
Read more here: Amendment 2 — Marriage Redliner
🔴 QUESTION 3- VOTING RIGHTS FOR FELONS
The third proposed amendment concerns voting rights and the restoration of voting rights following individuals convicted of a felony.
Today, a felony conviction removes the right to vote for life unless the Governor restores it after individual review. Question 3 would end that system. The moment a person walks out of prison—before finishing probation, parole, or restitution—their voting rights (and “all political rights”) would be restored automatically. No application. No review. No waiting period.
It would also create a new “fundamental right to vote” that “shall not be abridged by law,” except for those still behind bars or those a court finds unable to understand the act of voting. Once locked into the Constitution, this policy would be extremely difficult for future legislatures to change.
That means every released felon—violent or non-violent—regains full voting rights the day the prison doors open. No case-by-case judgment. No discretion left for any Governor.
Volume matters. Virginia has tens of thousands of people with felony convictions who are no longer incarcerated. Automatic restoration would place a large and sudden number of new voters onto the rolls with no intermediate screening. In closely contested localities and statewide races, that shift could prove decisive.
A constitutional change is not a temporary statute that can be refined next session. It is a permanent alteration of the rules that govern who gets to choose Virginia’s leaders. It isn’t a bill that can simply be changed at the next General Assembly session.
This election, we are being asked to change the governing document of the Commonwealth of Virginia!
That deserves more than reading a few sentences on a ballot while standing in a voting booth.
Remember … The future of Virginia will be decided by those who vote.