Voters in six U.S. states will decide ballot measures in 2026 that would limit voting in state and local elections to U.S. citizens only. Five of the measures are legislative constitutional amendments, while the measure in Alaska is a citizen-initiated state statute. Measures in Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia would define eligibility based on citizenship. The Arizona constitutional amendment states that "only citizens may register and vote in Arizona elections."

The Arizona Constitution already restricts voting to U.S. citizens. The proposed amendment also covers voter identification, campaign finance, and election administration. Alaska's measure will be the first statewide ballot measure on this topic proposed as a statute rather than a constitutional amendment.

Federal law has prohibited noncitizens from voting in elections for president, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate since 1996. Eligibility for other elections is governed by state constitutions and state and local laws. Between 2018 and 2025, voters decided on 15 constitutional amendments that established or reinforced citizenship requirements for voting. All 15 passed, with an average support rate of 73%.

From 1894 through 2025, voters considered 35 statewide ballot measures regarding citizenship requirements. Between 1894 and 1926, voters decided on 20 measures that repealed or restricted provisions permitting certain foreign-born noncitizens to vote. Voters approved 17 of these 20 measures. No statewide ballot measures on citizenship requirements were proposed between 1926 and 2018.

Author Alan Kennedy wrote in "Voters in a Foreign Land: Alien Suffrage in the United States, 1704–1926" that "all thirteen original states offered noncitizens some form of suffrage by 1800." He also stated that by 1800, "voting by landed, white, male noncitizens was legal in many states." Kennedy noted that state constitutions often used terms like inhabitant or freeman instead of citizen. He further stated that "frontier territories with statehood inclinations lured immigrants with promises of state citizenship and voting rights."

By 1880, over one-third of states allowed white male declarant noncitizens to vote. The allowance decreased after 1890 and concluded in the final state in 1926. Leon E. Aylsworth, a political scientist, wrote in 1931 that "for the first time in over a hundred years, a national election was held in 1928 in which no alien in any state had the right to cast a vote for a candidate for any office—national, state, or local."

From 1991 through 2025, voters considered 18 local measures designed to authorize or expand noncitizen voting in municipal, county, or school elections. Nine were approved, and nine were defeated. As of July 8, 2026, no local noncitizen-voting measures are certified for the ballot for that year.