Tennessee puts constitutional amendment questions near top of the ballot next to governor’s race

Tennessee officials placed the three constitutional amendment questions on the first page of the November 2026 ballot as required by law, pushing U.S. Congressional and state legislative races further down the ticket.

The legally required ballot design keeps Tennessee’s gubernatorial race at the top, with the constitutional amendments coming next. In Davidson County’s sample ballot, the amendments take up nearly three pages before voters get to the rest of the ballot. On Shelby County’s, the questions are more condensed. 

Tequila Johnson, co-founder of the Equity Alliance and a strategist helping Tennessee Democratic candidates, said that pushing U.S. Congress and state House races further down the ballot makes voters more likely to skip them. 

“We’ve lost state House races because people who voted for the Democrat at the top of the ticket didn’t vote down ballot,” Johnson said. 

In 2020, former President Joe Biden won the majority in the Memphis state House District 97, garnering over 17,000 votes. But the Democratic candidate in that district received about 14,000 votes, losing to the Republican by about 500. 

District 97 in the Tennessee state House is one of the party’s top targets in 2026, as it’s the only state House seat held by a Republican that voted for former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential election. 

Voters last took up constitutional amendments statewide in 2022, but those amendments were shorter. 

State officials placed the amendments near the top of the ballot because of a legal requirement, said Ben Hill, spokesperson for Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. Under Tennessee’s constitution, a majority of voters in this fall’s gubernatorial election would have to support the amendments for them to be added to the constitution. This means that even if they receive a majority of the votes cast, they may not pass if voters leave them blank. 

Voters face three constitutional questions in November election

What are this year’s constitutional amendments

Constitutional amendments end up on Tennessee’s ballot only after they pass the state legislature in two consecutive legislative sessions. This process means the questions appear only after the Republican supermajority approves them. 

The first constitutional amendment question seeks to remove the right to bail for defendants charged with one of 73 felony crimes that require at least 85% of the sentence to be served.

The second question is to prohibit lawmakers from implementing a statewide property tax, which Tennessee does not currently have. 

The third constitutional question focuses on crime victims’ rights, allowing them to be more involved in the judicial process before and after a conviction.

Sample ballots

Shelby County:

Davidson County:

Sam Stockard contributed to this report.