Amendment 3: No Post-Conviction Bail for Aggravated Offenses Against a Minor
Statewide — all of Louisiana
General election · Tuesday, November 3, 2026
- Referred to the ballot by the Louisiana Legislature as House Bill 51 (Act 271), sponsored by Rep. Debbie Villio (R); amendments require a two-thirds vote of each chamber and no gubernatorial signature. The House passed it 92-0 and the Senate 31-1 (per the bill history).[1][3]
The question on the ballot
Do you support an amendment to prohibit a defendant from being released on any post-conviction bail if the defendant is convicted of an aggravated offense against a minor child? (Adds Article I, Section 18(C))[2][5]
The amendment adds Article I, Section 18(C) to the Louisiana Constitution: after conviction, a person is not bailable if the offense is an aggravated offense, as defined by R.S. 15:541, committed against a victim who is a minor. Current law lets a person be bailable after conviction in some circumstances depending on the maximum or imposed sentence (five years or less). Fiscal impact (Legislative Fiscal Office): an "indeterminable increase" in local sheriffs' expenditures, because people convicted of such offenses would be held in parish jails rather than released on bail; no direct material effect on governmental revenues.[3][4]
A YES vote means
Adds to the Constitution a bar on any post-conviction bail for a person convicted of an aggravated offense, as defined in state law, committed against a minor.
A NO vote means
Leaves the Constitution's bail provisions unchanged, so post-conviction bail for such offenses remains governed by the existing rules.
The law today
After conviction and before sentencing, a person is bailable if the maximum sentence is five years or less, and a judge may grant bail if the maximum sentence is longer; after sentencing and until final judgment, a person is bailable if the sentence imposed is five years or less, and a judge may grant bail if it is longer.[4][5]
Official fiscal estimate
The Legislative Fiscal Office says the amendment "may result in an indeterminable increase in Local Funds expenditures" for local sheriffs, because convicted offenders would be held in parish jails rather than released on bail; the exact impact is indeterminable. It anticipates no direct material effect on governmental revenues.[4]
Arguments made for
- None found in public sources.
Arguments made against
- None found in public sources.
Research notes & limits
Ballot question text is the proposition printed in the enrolled joint resolution, which directs that it be placed on the Nov 3, 2026 ballot; vote counts, Act numbers and fiscal information are from the Louisiana Legislature's bill pages, résumé digests and Legislative Fiscal Office notes. The Louisiana Secretary of State's certified list could not be loaded (sos.la.gov election pages returned 404 on Oct 19, 2026), so the Amendment 1-10 numbering and the question wording were checked against the nonpartisan PAR Guide to the Fall 2026 Constitutional Amendments, which lists the same ten amendments in the same order with the same question text; the parenthetical effective-date and constitutional-citation text follows the enrolled resolution. Louisiana has no citizen initiative and publishes no voter-pamphlet arguments; a majority of votes cast approves an amendment. No supporting or opposing arguments or campaign committees were found in the sources reviewed. Enrichment (Oct 19): current law and fiscal impact are drawn from the enrolled-version Legislative Fiscal Office notes (or the Legislative Auditor's actuarial note for Amendment 5) and the PAR guide; Amendments 4 and 8 have no fiscal note. PAR's guide gives unattributed 'argument for/against' summaries rather than quotes from named people or groups, so they are not used as arguments. No registered campaign committees or campaign-finance filings were found for any of these amendments.
Sources · 5
Researched 2026-10-19. Green citations are official government records.
- 1.HB 51 (Act 271), bill history and votes · Louisiana Legislature Official record
- 2.Enrolled HB 51: joint resolution and ballot proposition · Louisiana Legislature Official record
- 3.Résumé Digest, Act 271 (HB 51) · Louisiana Legislature Official record
- 4.Legislative Fiscal Office fiscal note, enrolled HB 51 · Louisiana Legislative Fiscal Office Official record
- 5.PAR Guide to the Fall 2026 Constitutional Amendments · Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana · 2026-10 Reference