RALEIGH — The voters of North Carolina overwhelmingly approved a new state constitutional amendment that makes voting a citizen-only privilege in state elections.
Unofficial results as of Dec. 6 posted by the N.C. State Board of Elections show 5,393,545 votes were cast on the amendment question, with 4,184,680 voting in favor and 1,208,865 voting against — a passage percentage of 77.58%.
The amendment passed in 98 of the state’s 100 counties. The only counties where most voters cast their ballots against the measure were Durham (52.7%) and Orange (51.5%).
Session Law 2024-18 put the topic on the ballot this year, with voters asked to vote for or against “that only a citizen of the United States who is 18 years of age and otherwise possessing the qualifications for voting shall be entitled to vote at any election in this State.”
The Senate passed the amendment 40-4 and the House 99-12. Republicans in both chambers all voted for passage, while 16 Democrats across both chambers voted against it.
House Democrats voting against the amendment were Reps. John Autry (Mecklenburg), Amber Baker (Forsyth), Mary Belk (Mecklenburg), Laura Budd (Mecklenburg), Becky Carney (Mecklenburg), Maria Cervania (Wake), Sarah Crawford (Wake), Rosa Gill (Wake), Pricey Harrison (Guilford), Marvin Lucas (Cumberland), Marcia Morey (Durham) and Renée Price (Durham).
In the Senate, Democrat Sens. Val Applewhite (Cumberland), Graig Meyer (Orange), Natalie Murdock (Durham) and Gladys Robinson (Guilford) voted no.
While the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, voting in local, municipal and state elections has been left up to the states to decide.
Twelve states had citizen-only voting in some form before the 2024 election: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
Seven of those 12 states have citizen-only voting in their state constitutions: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota and Ohio.
As of the 2024 election, the total number of citizen-only voting states now stands at 20 with the addition of North Carolina, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
All eight states have Republican-controlled legislatures, and the measure passed by majorities ranging from 62% in Kentucky to 86% in South Carolina.
Noncitizen voting has increasingly become a hot-button election issue over the last decade. Certain municipalities in states like California, Maryland, New York and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia, have made headlines over allowing noncitizens to vote.
On May 1, 2024, U.S. Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) introduced a citizens-only voting bill, H.R.8218. The act was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on the same day it was introduced and has not been seen since.
Timmons’ bill followed a federal court dismissing a case challenging the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment of 2022 that allows noncitizens, including those who entered the country illegally, to vote in local Washington, D.C., elections so long as they lived in the district for 30 days.
