HC 17 Mississippi House · 2025 Regular Session

Constitution; amend to provide that only U.S. citizens are allowed the opportunity to vote.

This bill proposes amending Mississippi's state constitution to explicitly require U.S. citizenship for voting eligibility. It would change Section 241 to state that only U.S. citizens can vote in state elections, directly affecting non-citizen residents who currently have voting rights in Mississippi. The key provision removes any ambiguity by making citizenship a mandatory requirement, replacing the current language that already specified citizenship but lacked explicit emphasis. The ballot explanation for voters would state: "This proposed constitutional amendment provides that only citizens of the United States are allowed the opportunity to vote." The bill died in committee on March 4, 2025, and did not advance to a statewide vote.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
House Passage
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 17, 2025 Last action Mar 4, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced Current version · 3 edits
MINOR
This bill proposes an amendment to the Mississippi Constitution to explicitly restrict voting rights to U.S. citizens only. The amendment clarifies that only citizens of the United States are allowed the opportunity to vote, removing any ambiguity about non-citizen voting eligibility. This change would require a vote by qualified electors at an election to be held in November 2026.
Scope change
The bill's scope remains focused on constitutional amendment regarding voting eligibility, but the language has been modified to more explicitly state that only U.S. citizens may vote.
ELIGIBILITY

Added explicit language stating that only citizens of the United States are allowed the opportunity to vote, making the citizenship requirement more prominent and unambiguous in the constitutional text.

DEFINITION

Modified the definition of qualified electors to more clearly specify that only U.S. citizens meet the eligibility requirements for voting in Mississippi.

TECHNICAL

Changed formatting from House Concurrent Resolution to House Bill (HC) and updated session information from 'As Introduced' to 'As Adopted by House'.

Floor votes · House Feb 12, 2025

How they voted

1094
Passed · 6 other
Total votes 119
Feb 12, 2025
D Democratic39
32 Yea 4 Nay 3
82% Yea
I Independent2
2 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican78
75 Yea 3
96% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
8
Key actions
3
Committee
3
Amendments
1
Feb 17, 2025
Committee
Referred To Constitution
upper
Feb 17, 2025
Introduced
Transmitted To Senate
lower
Feb 12, 2025
Lower · Passed
Adopted As Amended
lower
Feb 12, 2025
Lower · Passed
Amended
lower
Jan 29, 2025
Lower · Passed
Title Suff Do Be Adopted
lower
Jan 17, 2025
Committee
Referred To Constitution
lower
1 primary · 1 co-sponsor

Sponsors