Texas BANS non citizens from voting in ALL local elections after passing constitutional amendment

Proposition 16 passed with over 71 percent support as of Wednesday afternoon. The measure amends the Texas Constitution to explicitly include “persons who are not citizens of the United States” among those barred from voting. The list already includes convicted felons who have not met certain conditions for reinstatement and individuals deemed mentally incompetent by a court.

By placing the citizenship requirement directly into the state constitution, the amendment makes it significantly harder for future lawmakers to alter the rule. Any change would require a two-thirds vote in the legislature and approval by voters through another constitutional amendment.

The move follows broader efforts by states to ensure noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, are not able to vote. Federal law already bans noncitizens from voting in federal elections, but 14 states have passed constitutional amendments reinforcing citizenship requirements for state and local elections. According to Ballotpedia, Arkansas, Kansas, and South Dakota are scheduled to vote on similar measures next year. Meanwhile, California, Maryland, and Vermont currently permit noncitizens to vote in local elections.

Last August, Texas Governor Greg Abbott praised the state’s ongoing efforts to clean up its voter rolls, which included removing more than one million ineligible voters, among them over 6,500 noncitizens.

“Election integrity is essential to our democracy,” Abbott said at the time. “Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”