How does Virginia amend its constitution? And why does it seem so hard to keep track of amendments?
How to Amend the Virginia Constitution
Virginia uses the “legislative referral” method as its sole avenue of amending the state Constitution. This means that amendments must begin as a resolution in the General Assembly. Once the resolution is approved by both legislative houses during two separate legislative sessions, the amendment must be approved by a majority of voters.
To be more specific:
- A resolution (the “first resolution” or “first reference”) must be approved by majority vote by both the state Senate and the House of Delegates during the same session.
- The resolution must be introduced again (the “second resolution” or “second reference”) and approved by both houses in the session immediately following a House of Delegates election.
- For example: to move forward, any resolution passed by the legislature in either the 2020 or 2021 session, must be passed a second time in the 2022 session, since it immediately follows the 2021 election where Delegates were elected.
- Both houses then pass a bill that authorizes a referendum, or ballot question, to be placed on the ballot at the next November general election.
- Since this is a “normal” bill and not a resolution, the Governor must also approve the referendum bill. (Presumably the Governor could veto the referendum bill, although this has never happened.)
- Since Delegates are elected in odd years (2019, 2021), the process ensures that amendments can only appear on the general election ballot in even years (2020, 2022).
Sometimes there are separate resolutions in both the House and Senate with the exact same text; rather than pick one, legislators often just approve both.
- Read the section of the Constitution of Virginia that describes this process
- Read more about amending state Constitutions here
How to Count Amendments
Counting amendments is hard, for two big reasons.
First, unlike the United States Constitution (and like most constitutions across the world), the Constitution of Virginia allows amendments to edit the existing text of the Constitution. Since changes are incorporated into the existing text, it is not always easy to see what has been changed and when.
Second, because amendments begin their life as a resolution in the General Assembly, state legislators can sometimes get a little… creative. In the past legislators have combined separate changes to the Constitution into one resolution, but required different ballot questions for approval. We have tried to mark these occurrences on our list of amendments. Still, it is no wonder that we haven’t had an accurate counting of amendments for so long: it’s complicated!