Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to ensure that only citizens are eligible to vote in Federal elections.

Plain-English Summary

This bill proposes an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would explicitly state that only American citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections. A constitutional amendment is one of the most significant changes that can be made to U.S. law — it requires approval by two-thirds of both the House and Senate, and then must be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures (38 out of 50 states) before it becomes law.

Currently, federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections, and it is a serious crime for a non-citizen to do so. This proposed amendment would take that existing rule a step further by permanently embedding it in the Constitution itself, making it much harder to change in the future compared to a standard law passed by Congress.

This bill would primarily affect the legal framework around election rules rather than changing day-to-day voting practices for most Americans. U.S. citizens would see no change in their voting rights. Non-citizens, including legal permanent residents (often called "green card holders"), would be constitutionally barred from voting in federal elections. It could also affect a small number of local jurisdictions that have experimented with allowing non-citizen residents to vote in certain local elections, though it specifically targets federal elections.

The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which is the standard first step in the legislative process. It has not yet been voted on, and as a constitutional amendment, it faces a significantly higher bar for passage than ordinary legislation.