AUSTIN – A proposition to ensure only American citizens can vote in all Texas elections was overwhelmingly passed Tuesday.
Proposition 16 received more than 72 percent of the vote in the November 4 election. It was one of 17 propositions put before Texas voters, and all of them passed.
Kolean
“Tonight’s victory for Proposition 16 is a win for Texas voters and for election integrity,” Charlie Kolean with Americans for Citizen Voting, told The Southeast Texas Record. “Texans made it clear — only U.S. citizens should vote in our elections, from city hall to the statehouse.”
ACV has been pushing for the ballot measure, known as the Citizenship Only Voting Amendment.
“This amendment protects the principle that every legal vote counts and that our elections reflect the voice of citizens alone,” Kolean said. “Thank you to everyone who worked tirelessly to make this historic result possible.”
The passed amendment will explicitly require U.S. citizenship to vote in all state and local elections and ensure that the right to vote remains an exclusive privilege of American citizens. The amendment will add noncitizens to the list of persons excluded from voting in Texas found in Section 1, Article 6 of the Texas Constitution.
Kolean said ACV worked for more than three years over two legislative sessions to get this issue on the ballot.
“Let’s be clear: This is not a partisan issue,” he said. “This is not left versus right. It’s about Texans versus non-citizens deciding the future of our communities. Loopholes already have opened up the door for non-citizens voting in local elections. We’ve seen it in San Francisco and New York City. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. Prop 16 will close that door in Texas.”
The current list of persons excluded from voting in Texas are persons under the age of 18, those determined by a court to be mentally incompetent and convicted felons and any exceptions by the state Legislature.
Proposition 16 will close any ambiguity in state law and constitutionally reinforce that only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in local, state, and federal elections held in Texas.
“Proposition 16 is a commonsense safeguard that makes clear what most Texans already believe — only American citizens should decide American elections,” Kolean said. “This amendment strengthens the integrity of our election system and sends a clear message: the right to vote belongs to citizens and citizens alone.”
The state Constitution now will be amended to add that persons who are not citizens of the U.S. shall not be allowed to vote in the state. While non-Americans can’t vote in state or federal elections in Texas, the idea that non-citizens could vote in local and municipal elections is what Kolean’s group hopes to prevent.
In recent years, ACV has worked to have similar measures adopted in states. Last November, eight states (Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin) passed laws to keep non-citizens from voting.
Before the Texas vote, 20 states already had laws to make sure only American citizens can vote in those states, and several other states are actively considering such legislation.
Legislatures in Arkansas, Kansas and South Dakota already have placed amendments on the 2026 ballot. Efforts to place citizen only voting measures on the 2026 ballot are taking place in Alaska, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire and West Virginia.
