NC’s ballot has 3 constitutional amendments. Should voters have the power to add more?

This November, North Carolina voters will get the chance to change the state constitution by filling in bubbles on their ballots.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly has so far placed three proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot — amendments that could change the state’s tax laws and election laws, while potentially motivating conservative North Carolinians to vote in what’s expected to be a tough election year for Republican candidates. More amendments could be approved before the session ends. 

Activists and legislators have sought other constitutional amendments over the years. However, unlike other states, North Carolina law doesn’t allow for citizens — or the minority party — to place referendums on the ballot by petitioning the government. Proposed constitutional amendments can only be placed on the ballot by the General Assembly, which has been controlled by Republicans since 2011.

Some lawmakers are trying to change that. House Bill 1155 would create that same kind of popular referendum power for North Carolina residents, too. But top GOP leaders have shown no interest in giving up their power to decide what amendments will or won’t be on the ballot, and that bill has gone nowhere since it was filed by a group of freshman Democrats earlier this year including state Rep. Phil Rubin, D-Wake.

“Our Constitution belongs to the people and not politicians,” Rubin said at a press conference earlier this month. “We should give them the opportunity to secure their constitution, demand absolute transparency in law making and ensure that people, not backroom deals, have the final say.”

The three that will certainly be on the ballot this fall are:

• House Bill 1089, which would restrict the ability of cities and counties to raise property taxes.
• Senate Bill 1080, which would ban any future legislature from raising income taxes on anyone above 3.49% — half the current cap of a 7% maximum tax rate.
• Senate Bill 921 from the last session, which would take existing law requiring voter ID for mail-in ballots, adding it to the constitution.

In the last several years alone, dozens of other proposals have been trotted out in an effort to amend the constitution. North Carolina hasn’t done a broad rewrite of its state constitution since the early 1970s, when it removed some racist provisions as a response to the Civil Rights movement. But every few years there tend to be one or more proposed amendments that voters are asked to approve or deny.

A review of the constitutional amendment proposals filed this year show a wide range of issues that voters probably won’t be allowed to weigh in on.

Some deal with heady legal issues such as the separation of powers within state government. Others are hyper-focused on specific issues: Banning gerrymandering, enacting political term limits, celebrating farmers, hampering organized labor, banning all abortions, limiting the governor’s pardon power, or enshrining gay marriage in the state, in case the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its landmark 2015 ruling that expanded LGBTQ rights.

Nearly all of the proposals break down along party lines: amendments proposed by Republicans usually receive support only from Republicans, and amendments proposed by Democrats are usually only supported by Democrats.  But that’s not the case for every proposed amendment. One idea, with some bipartisan support, would increase the pay state lawmakers receive, while also revoking their pay for every month the legislature fails to pass a new state budget once the fiscal year begins.

Putting amendments on the ballot “provides an opportunity for voters to have a direct voice on an issue that has remained unresolved for far too long,” Sen. Caleb Theodros, D-Mecklenburg, said this month.

Theodros pitched two amendments: one to legalize medical marijuana and another to decriminalize possession of small amounts for recreational use. Legalization — whether for medical or recreational use — is favored by a majority of North Carolina voters, according to recent polls. Most other states have legalized marijuana for at least medical use.

Theodros said passing an amendment on marijuana policy would still allow the legislature to determine the exact details, but that it would at least force lawmakers to act — if that’s what the public wants.

“Rather than allowing this debate to continue indefinitely within the halls of the General Assembly, the legislation asks the citizens of our state to determine the direction they believe North Carolina should take,” he said.

Tami Fitzgerald, leader of the NC Values Coalition, says the current system works. Her group successfully lobbied lawmakers to place a ballot referendum on the ballot in 2012 defining marriage as between one man and one woman. It passed with 61% of the vote, and was later nullified by a 2015 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“People have the power to do this already and that’s how it's been done for 250 years now,” Fitzgerald told WRAL in an interview. “The General Assembly are elected representatives of the people and lawmakers are easy to get in touch with if you have an idea for them to push for.” 

Citizen-led initiatives

In many states, the people can petition to add proposals to the ballot. If a petition gets enough signatures, it can be put up for a vote even if the governor or legislature oppose the idea. That’s not the case in North Carolina, where only the legislature can put something on the ballot, and even then only with a supermajority vote of at least 60% of lawmakers on board.

House Bill 1155, the referendum bill filed by Rubin and other Democrats, would require proposals to receive signatures from at least 8% of the number of people who voted in the most recent election for governor, including at least 3% in each of the state’s individual congressional districts to ensure a diversity of support. Based on the 2024 election, in which 5.6 million North Carolinians voted for governor, that would mean a petition would have to get at least 447,324 signatures from North Carolina voters to be put on the ballot.

Democrats also proposed amendments to enact new ethics reforms targeting the state legislature and judiciary, House bills 1234, 1235 and 1236. Their press conference advocating for the changes — which was highly critical of Republican Supreme Court justices, who include the son of state Senate leader Phil Berger — is unlikely to have won any GOP lawmakers to their side.

Democrats have acknowledged they’re unlikely to get their amendments passed in a GOP-led legislature but have said they want to keep pressing their priorities anyway, to show voters they have plans for what to do if they do retake power.

“We're aware of the political climate in this building,” Theodros told reporters. “But again, we didn't get elected to just sit on our hands and say ‘We're in the superminority and therefore there's nothing we could ever do.’”

Fitzgerald cited her successful effort more than a decade ago to work with lawmakers to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot as evidence that the current process works.

“It’s a hard thing to do, but it can be done,” she said. “Lawmakers are available to work with, and as constituents all you need to do is tell them what you want to do. A petition is redundant.”

Others have made the pitch that it would be in Republicans’ best interests to allow some of Democrats’ amendments to be put on the ballot now, particularly those limiting the power of the legislature.

“Political offices come and go,” Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, said at a recent press conference. “Those who are elected come and go. And there's an awful lot of bad law that has been passed by the leaders we currently have that is really probably going to come back to haunt them. It's time for them to start correcting some of that, before we get the reins.”

And it’s not only Democrats who have been frustrated with GOP leaders’ reluctance to put amendments on the ballot. Conservatives who support ideas such as term limits have rallied at the legislature for years pushing for attention, but have so far been rebuffed.

Proposed constitutional amendments advancing conservative positions on guns and abortion have also gone nowhere. Also receiving no attention so far is a GOP-backed proposal that would limit the governor’s power to declare a state of emergency.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor of North Carolina used a state of emergency to rule by decree for over a year, and … deprived people of the enjoyment of many constitutional rights, such as the right to peacefully assembly, to worship freely, to educate their children, and to be gainfully employed to earn a living and pay their bills,” the language in House Bill 678 introducing the amendment says. 

The bill sponsored by state Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford, proposes allowing future governors to declare emergencies for a maximum of two weeks only, unless the legislature votes to extend it further. The amendment has received no hearings in more than a year since it was filed in April 2025.

Blust acknowledged he’s not surprised his bill hasn’t advanced, noting that most legislation never receives a hearing. He said leadership ultimately decides which proposals move forward and said he has mixed feelings about creating a citizen initiative process, arguing voters often don't know who is financing ballot campaigns. While he believes lawmakers should remain responsible for constitutional amendments, he said the General Assembly should be more willing to consider proposals from rank-and-file members.

“It’s funny that Democrats are pushing this petition bill because if they got power from the Republicans they would step back,” Blust told WRAL. “It’s the same thing I saw when we took power.”

There are still several constitutional amendment proposals in circulation, including a proposal to allow people to carry concealed firearms without a permit allowing them to conceal them, as well as proposed changes involving how the State Board of Education is selected. 

House Speaker Destin Hall told reporters Tuesday they are being discussed with Senate leaders but no agreement has been reached. “It’s possible you could see another amendment or two on the ballot,” Hall said.

Redistricting reforms

The constitutional amendment that appears to be sought most by Democrats would address politically motivated redistricting in one way or another. Some of the proposals to restrict or ban gerrymandering that have been filed this year include Senate Bill 698, Senate Bill 804, House Bill 20 and House Bill 788.

“You'd be hard pressed to find any policy that's more popular and more universal among North Carolina voters than nonpartisan redistricting,” Sen. Sydney Batch, the lead sponsor of SB 804, said this month. She contended that sweet tea, week-long vacations at the beach, firefighters, and fried chicken are “all less popular than North Carolinians who are asking and begging for this chamber to do something with independent redistricting.”

Under current interpretations of state law, as determined by the Republican majority on the state Supreme Court, the legislature has near-unlimited power to draw political district maps for partisan gain. With that ruling in hand, Republicans are all-but guaranteed to win at least 10 and maybe 11 of the state’s 14 U.S. House of Representatives seats.

Under previous interpretations of state law, from a Democratic majority on the Supreme Court, the legislature had to draw less skewed maps. That ruling led to an even 7-7 split in the congressional districts under a map approved as part of that court ruling.

But with the interpretation of the constitution changing constantly depending on which political party controls the Supreme Court, one possible fix to confusion could be to pass a constitutional amendment clearing up how redistricting can or can’t be used for political gain in North Carolina. The amendments proposed this year each have different details. None have been allowed to receive a hearing by Republican lawmakers, who have few incentives to give away their power.

Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots North Carolina, a political and advocacy organization focused on advancing gun rights and conservative policy goals, argued that drawing political districts is a normal part of the process. “Gerrymandering is not a dirty word,” he said. “Anyone who says gerrymandering is bad is being less than truthful.”

Changing the U.S. Constitution

Some members of both parties are also backing efforts to change the U.S. Constitution. Republicans have already lent their support to calls for a new constitutional convention, approving a resolution last year, although new calls for a different type of convention have sprung up again this year.

While supporters typically say they want to keep such a convention narrowly focused, particularly on an effort to require Congressional term limits, skeptics say there’s nothing stopping that convention from rewriting the entire Constitution.

Democrats have also sought to add North Carolina’s support to a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Equal Rights Amendment, which states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” The ERA is largely framed as an effort to eliminate distinctions between men and women in matters such as employment, wages, divorce, custody proceedings and more.

The ERA was approved by Congress in the 1970s and then sent to the states for approval, needing three-fourths of states to sign on. The amendment hit that mark in 2020 when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it, but it has been held up regardless due to legal challenges related to the decades-long ratification effort. Democrats hope that adding North Carolina to the list of states supporting the amendment would help clear up some of those questions and allow the amendment to be formally added to the constitution.

Ratifying it wouldn’t take a popular referendum of the state’s voters, just support by the state legislature. But Democrats never did it while they controlled the legislature up through 2010, and Republicans have likewise chosen not to support the ERA since they took control in 2011.

The 2026 versions of bills backing ERA ratification are co-sponsored by 16 of the 20 Democrats in the state Senate, as well as all 49 Democratic or unaffiliated members of the state House, but zero Republicans in either chamber.