Congress proposes change to Constitution: only citizens vote.
S.J.Res. 212 — A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to ensure that only citizens are eligible to vote in Federal elections. · Filed by Eric Schmitt (R-MO) · Introduced Aug 7, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This joint resolution proposes a change to the Constitution. It would say only U.S. citizens can vote in elections for President, Vice President, Senate, and House. States would set voting rules. Congress could override them or set rules for Washington, D.C. The change would need approval from three-fourths of the states to become law.
Who it affects
This change would affect all voters and states. It puts into the Constitution a rule that already exists in law: only citizens can vote.
One thing to notice
No state currently lets non-citizens vote in these elections. So this change deals with a problem that does not exist today.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Aug 7, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 7, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- joint resolution — A formal proposal from Congress that can propose a change to the Constitution.
- Constitution — The basic set of rules that governs the United States.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,498 characters) on Aug 14, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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