CHARLESTON – The House Judiciary Committee is poised to pass a resolution that would ensure only United States citizens can vote in West Virginia elections.
During a March 10 meeting, the committee advanced Senate Joint Resolution to the markup and passage stage. A vote, likely on March 11, would send the resolution to the full House of Delegates just days before the 60-day legislative session ends March 14.
Kolean
“Today’s action by the House Judiciary Committee is an important step toward protecting the integrity of our elections,” said Charlie Kolean, state director of Americans for Citizen Voting. “West Virginians — like citizens across the country — overwhelmingly support the principle that only American citizens should be voting in American elections.
“West Virginia has an opportunity to join the growing number of states taking commonsense steps to safeguard the ballot. It's time for the House to pass this resolution.”
The Senate passed SJR 9 by a 33-0 vote March 3. The measure now will be communicated to the House of Delegates, which had a similar resolution introduced at the start of the 2026 session only to languish in committee.
If passed, the resolution would put the issue before voters in the form of a Constitutional amendment.
House Joint Resolution 18 and SJR 9 both were introduced last month in the West Virginia Legislature, and both were sent to their respective Judiciary Committees. Both had languished until the Senate version gained traction a few weeks ago.
As with previous versions, this year’s resolutions would modify Section 1, Article IV of the state Constitution to prohibit persons not United States citizens from voting in any election held within the state. The resolution needs to be adopted by both houses by a two-thirds vote to be put before voters in this fall’s general election.
During the 2024 session, a similar resolution passed the House on a 96-0 vote and the Senate on a 32-0 vote. But the House measure died on the final night of the session because of a technical glitch in the Legislature’s bill tracking system that temporarily showed the measure as being completed.
By the time the problem was realized, it was too late for it and a host of other measures to be taken across the finish line because of a Democratic filibuster.
In last year’s session, the Senate resolution passed by a 34-0 vote before being sent to the House of Delegates’ Judiciary Committee, where it sat until the end of the session.
In recent years, ACV has worked to have similar measures adopted in states. Texas voters approved a similar measure in November. And in 2024, eight states (Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin) passed laws to keep non-citizens from voting.
Including Texas, 21 states now have laws ensuring 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. And in addition to West Virginia, efforts to place citizen only voting measures on the 2026 ballot are taking place in Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Tennessee.
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Elsewhere in the Legislature, a Senate bill that would increase pay for judges across the state is moving along as well.
Senate Bill 29 was heard by the House Finance Committee during a March 10 hearing. The bill would raise the pay of county magistrates by $6,750 and other judges including circuit judges, family court judges, Intermediate Court of Appeals judges and Supreme Court justices by $10,000 over two years.
The bill also would create a contribution holiday for the state’s contribution to the judicial retirement program if the program is 125 percent funded.
The bill passed the state Senate on a 33-0 vote last week.
