North Carolina becomes seventh state to add citizenship requirement for voting

Welcome to the Wednesday, July 10, Brew.

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

1. North Carolina becomes seventh state to add citizenship requirement for voting amendment to November ballot
2. Ten-year high number of Tennessee state legislative candidates amidst school voucher debate
3. Volunteer for Ballotpedia–and help provide voters with neutral, fact-based information about every candidate

North Carolina becomes seventh state to add citizenship requirement for voting amendment to November ballot

Voters in North Carolina will join those in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin in deciding a ballot measure to prohibit non-citizen voting. These measures would change their respective state constitutions to say that only U.S. citizens can vote in elections. Republican-controlled state legislatures placed all seven ballot questions on the November 2024 ballot.

There were 29 measures on the North Carolina ballot between 1985 and 2022. Voters approved 24 and rejected five.

Context

Voters in seven states approved similar measures related to citizenship requirements for voting in Arizona (1962), North Dakota (2018), Colorado (2020), Alabama (2020), Florida (2020), Ohio (2022), and Louisiana (2022) with at least 62.9% of the vote.

Five of those states (North Dakota, Alabama, Florida, Ohio, and Louisiana) are Republican trifectas, though Louisiana had a divided government when it approved the 2022 ballot measure. Arizona has a divided government and also had a divided government in 1962 when it passed the ballot measure. Only Colorado has a Democratic trifecta.

This means that 18 Republican trifecta states, 16 Democratic trifecta states, and nine states with divided governments have not passed constitutional amendments banning non-citizen voting.

What the amendment would change about voting in North Carolina

Currently, the North Carolina Constitution says, “Every person born in the United States and every person who has been naturalized, 18 years of age, and possessing the qualifications set out in this Article, shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people of the State, except as herein otherwise provided.”

The proposed constitutional amendment would change the wording to read: “Only a citizen of the United States who is 18 years of age and possessing the qualifications set out in this Article, shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people of the State, except as herein otherwise provided.”

Path to the ballot

North Carolina requires a 60% vote in each legislative chamber during a single legislative session to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

The constitutional amendment was introduced as House Bill 1074. The House voted 99-12 to approve the bill on June 27.

• 67 House Republicans voted “yes,” five were absent, and none opposed the bill.
• 32 House Democrats voted “yes,” 12 voted “no,” and four were absent.

The Senate approved the amendment 40-4 on the same day.

• All 30 Republicans voted “yes” on the bill.
• 10 Democrats voted “yes,” four voted “no,” and six were absent.

Viewpoints on the amendment

• State Sen. Brad Overcash (R-43) said, “We’ve got an opportunity to empower the people of North Carolina to amend their own constitution and declare that citizens and only citizens of the state of North Carolina are allowed to vote in our elections.”
• State Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-49) said, “I don’t want to impugn the motives of my colleagues. But ultimately I think these are coming up because it’s a turnout issue.”

Ten-year high number of Tennessee state legislative candidates amidst school voucher debate

As a part of Ballotpedia’s coverage of state legislative primaries, we delve into the competitiveness of those primaries and break down the issues in state legislatures driving those primaries. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at Tennessee’s state legislative primaries. A major issue in the Republican primaries is a conflict over a proposal to expand the state’s school voucher program.

In the 2024 legislative session, Gov. Bill Lee (R) supported a proposal allowing all Tennessee families with school-age children to use vouchers to pay for private school tuition. The bill did not advance to a final vote before the end of the session due to differences between the House and Senate drafts in what Chalkbeat described as “one of the biggest defeats of [Lee’s] administration, now in its second term.”

According to the Tennessee Lookout, with the Legislature out of session until 2025, the primaries “are the next frontier in the debate over whether state lawmakers should adopt a universal plan to provide parents with $7,200 in cash to subsidize private school tuition.” As of June 14, Lee had endorsed three House Republicans—Scott Cepciky (R), William Lamberth (R), and John Ragan (R)—for re-election. Lee had also endorsed three candidates running in open seats.

Ballotpedia identified seven state legislative districts as battleground races

There are eight Republican primaries for the Tennessee Senate and 19 for the Tennessee House of Representatives on Aug. 1. Incumbents are running in seven of the Senate primaries and 13 of the House primaries.

In the Senate

• Ballotpedia identified the Republican primaries in Districts 2, 4, 6, and 18 as battlegrounds.
• Districts 4, 6, and 18 feature an incumbent and a single challenger.
• District 2 is for an open seat.
• Ballotpedia identified seven PACs as having a recent advocacy history for school vouchers in Tennessee. Four of those PACs have spent money in Districts 4, 6, and 18.
• District 2 features an incumbent member of the House who opposed Lee’s vouchers proposal.

In the House

• Ballotpedia identified the Republican primaries in Districts 13, 24, and 73 as battlegrounds.
• All three primaries feature an incumbent and a single challenger.
• Two of the seven PACs Ballotpedia identified as having a recent history of advocacy for school vouchers in Tennessee spent money in all three of those primaries.
• One battleground district—District 24—has a challenger who opposes Lee’s vouchers proposal.

Competitiveness

Tennessee has 240 major party candidates running for state legislative office in 2024, the most of any election cycle since 2014. Of the 240 total candidates, 106 are Democrats, the most over the past 10 years.

Tennessee has 41 contested state legislative primaries in 2024, a 14% increase from 2022. Fourteen of the 41 contested primaries are for Democrats. This is the same as in 2020 and up 27% from 11 in 2022. Republicans have 27 contested primaries, up 8% from 2022.

Tennessee is one of 23 states with a Republican trifecta. A state government trifecta is a term used to describe a single-party government where one political party holds the governor’s office and a majority in both state legislative chambers.

Incumbents defeated in state legislative primaries this year

Twenty-six states have held state legislative primaries: seven with Democratic trifectas, 15 with Republican trifectas, and four with a divided government. Across those states, 103 incumbents lost to primary challengers – 3.7% of incumbents who ran for re-election.

In the 2024 primaries:

• 22 Democratic incumbents have lost so far. That is 2.0% of the 1,114 Democratic incumbents who have run. If this percentage holds, it would be the lowest percentage of Democratic incumbents who lost primaries in even-year elections since 2016 (1.8%).
• 81 Republican incumbents lost so far. That is 4.9% of the 1,652 Republican incumbents who have run. If that percentage holds, it would be the second-highest percentage of Republican incumbents who lost in even-year primaries since Ballotpedia began tracking this data in 2010. The year with the highest percentage of incumbents defeated was 2022 (6.2%)

The data calculated for 2024 are year-to-date and subject to change as more primaries are held.

The total number of incumbents defeated in primaries–103–is less than at this point in 2022 (130) and more than at this point in 2020 (83). To read more about incumbents defeated in state legislative elections, click here.

Volunteer for Ballotpedia–and help provide voters with neutral, fact-based information about every candidate

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The fall program runs from Sept. 3-Nov. 11. Since 2020, hundreds of students have completed the Fellows program.

The program is designed specifically for high school and college students. However, we welcome volunteers at any stage of their academic or professional career. Fellows have the opportunity to develop robust research and data aggregation skills while working directly with Ballotpedia staff to increase the quality of information available to voters about their elections.

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