Nebraska Amendment 1, Require Citizenship for Foreign-Born Persons to Vote Measure (1918)

Nebraska Amendment 1
Election date November 5, 1918
Topic Citizenship voting requirements
Status Approved
Type Legislatively referred constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

Nebraska Amendment 1 was on the ballot as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in Nebraska on November 5, 1918. It was approved.

A "yes" vote supported changing the voting requirement from allowing people of foreign birth who had declared an intent to become citizens to vote to requiring U.S. citizenship at least 30 days before an election.

A "no" vote opposed changing the voting requirement, thereby continuing to allow people of foreign birth who had declared an intent to become U.S. citizens to vote.

Election results

Nebraska Amendment 1
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		123,292	70.50%
No		51,600	29.50%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Amendment 1 was as follows:

“

[ ] For proposed amendment to the constitution relating to the right of suffrage. [ ] Against said proposed amendment to the constitution relating to the right of suffrage."

”

Constitutional changes

The ballot measure amended Section 1 of Article 7 of the Nebraska Constitution. The following underlined language was added and struck-through language was deleted:

Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.

Second. Persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens conformably to the laws of the United States, on the subject of naturalization, at least thirty days prior to an election. Persons of foreign birth who shall have become citizens of the United States by naturalization or otherwise conformably to the laws of the United States at least thirty days prior to an election.

Support

Supporters

Organizations

• Nebraska State Daughters of the American Revolution

Arguments

• Katherine Green, Chairperson of the Daughters of the American Revolution: "In this state, the so-called ‘declaration paper’ can be taken out by any alien man or unmarried alien woman, over eighteen years of age on any day of the year except Sunday or a legal holiday. This declaration of his intention to become a citizen costs the alien only one dollar. It is good in any state of the union, and in Nebraska, it immediately qualifies a foreign born man to hold any office in the gift of the voters except the governorship. Nebraska has a chance to correct this mistake if we vote in favor of the citizen suffrage amendment. The state does not need more settlers and should not continue to allow these special privileges. Mr. Voter, will you begin to limit them by voting in favor of the alien suffrage amendment? If you do not, so you should not be surprised if that element out votes you, lowers the standards of American living, ruins your business, and dictates what you and your family shall and shall not do. You have already given to uncounted numbers of men that are not citizens of America and still are citizens of various foreign countries, a perfect right to vote for every possible office and measure, municipal, state and national, from local bonds to president of the United States. This amendment is meant to allow citizens of the United States to decide how they themselves shall be governed. As long as the present law stands you allow persons who are not citizens to decide this for you."

Opposition

Arguments

You can share campaign information or arguments, along with source links for this information, at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Nebraska Constitution

A 60% supermajority vote is required during one legislative session for the Nebraska State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 30 votes in the unicameral legislature, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot. A simple majority vote is required for voter approval. However, the number of affirmative votes cast for the measure must be greater than 35% of the total votes cast in the election. This also applies to citizen initiatives.

See also

1918 Measures

• 1918 Measures
• Citizenship voting requirements on the ballot
• 1918 legislative sessions

Nebraska

• Nebraska ballot measures
• Nebraska ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• List of Nebraska ballot measures, 1882-2012