Will voters choose to change how the state’s constitution handles bail, property taxes and victims’ rights?
There are three proposed constitutional amendments on the upcoming ballot. Here’s a rundown of what they would do. Plus the local news for October 7, 2026 and this week’s edition of What Where Whens-day.
Below is a partial transcript of the episode.
It’s Oct. 7, 2026, exactly one week out from the start of early voting in Tennessee.
We’ve got several open Congressional seats, thanks to the redistricting that happened this spring. We’re picking a new governor. There are state legislative races. And it’s time to weigh in on proposed changes to the state’s most fundamental governing document.
It’s pretty rare that anyone tries to make changes to the United States Constitution. We do see amendments to the Tennessee Constitution come up for consideration a little more often. Not that the process is all that much easier.
It still takes the legislature agreeing to a measure twice, in two different sessions. So – once they vote on it, there has to be an election that could potentially change who’s in power before they vote again, and that time it has to pass with a two-thirds majority. After all that, voters have to give it the OK. The final hurdle for an amendment to Tennessee’s constitution is a referendum vote, which must be held on the same ballot as a gubernatorial election. And with one of those elections just around the corner, there are three proposed amendments ready for your consideration.
First on the ballot is Amendment No. 1, which would create more circumstances where a judge can order that a person be held without bail. Currently, the law only allows that in certain murder cases. This amendment would make it a possibility for a number of other violent crimes. Although, as some have pointed out, there’s nothing stopping a judge from setting bail really, really high. Like, so expensive there’s no chance the accused person could ever afford it. So the question for us as voters is whether it makes so much of a difference that we want to write it into our state constitution.
Amendment No. 2 would prohibit the state from instituting a property tax. Now, don’t get so excited. That wouldn’t really change things for homeowners. The current property tax would still be allowed, because that’s levied by your county or city. While the state currently has the constitutional right to tax personal real estate, it hasn’t done that since the late 1940s. So the amendment is just codifying the way things have been for more than 75 years.
The last measure, on the ballot as Amendment No. 3, does have the potential to impact people’s lives. But who would feel it the most is a matter for debate. It would replace the current constitutional language establishing rights for crime victims with another set of victims’ rights known as “Marsy’s Law.” There’s been a national campaign pushing for all states to adopt the same boilerplate language.
Some say Marsy’s Law offers meaningful improvement for victims by enshrining the right to restitution and access to information. On the other hand, the ACLU has warned that it could have the effect of weakening protections for the people accused of crimes, even undermining the basic concept of presuming you are innocent until proven guilty.
Several more constitutional amendments are in the works, but they still need their second pass through the legislature and cannot appear on the ballot until 2030.
But these three — changing the laws around bail, banning the state from collecting tax on property, and overhauling victims’ rights — are about to be in voters’ hands.
For each of these amendments, a “yes” vote means you would like to change the Constitution to include the new language. A “no” vote means you’d like to leave things the way they are.
Early voting starts next Wednesday, Oct. 14. Election day is Nov. 3.
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