GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2017
SESSION LAW 2018-112
SENATE BILL 325
AN ACT to set hours for one‑stop early voting sites and to require county board of elections to submit an annual report on voter list maintenance.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 163A‑1300(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b) Not earlier than the
second Thursdaythird Wednesday before an election, in which
absentee ballots are authorized, in which a voter seeks to vote and not later
than 1:00 P.M. 7:00 P.M. on the last Saturday Friday before
that election, the voter shall appear in person only at the office of the
county board of elections, except as provided in G.S. 163A‑1303. A
county board of elections shall conduct one‑stop voting on the last
Saturday before the election until 1:00 P.M. That voter shall enter the
voting enclosure at the board office through the appropriate entrance and shall
at once state his or her name and place of residence to an authorized member or
employee of the board and present photo identification in accordance with
G.S. 163A‑1145. In a primary election, the voter shall also state
the political party with which the voter affiliates and in whose primary the
voter desires to vote, or if the voter is an unaffiliated voter permitted to
vote in the primary of a particular party under G.S. 163A‑989, the
voter shall state the name of the authorizing political party in whose primary
he wishes to vote. The board member or employee to whom the voter gives this
information shall announce the name and residence of the voter in a distinct
tone of voice. After examining the registration records, an employee of the
board shall state whether the person seeking to vote is duly registered. If the
voter is found to be registered that voter may request that the authorized
member or employee of the board furnish the voter with an application form as
specified in G.S. 163‑227.G.S. 163A‑1391. The
voter shall complete the application in the presence of the authorized member
or employee of the board, and shall deliver the application to that
person."
SECTION 2. G.S. 163A‑1303 reads as rewritten:
"§ 163A‑1303. Sites and hours for one‑stop voting.
(a) Notwithstanding any
other provision of G.S. 163A‑1300, 163A‑1301, 163A‑1302,
this section, and G.S. 163A‑1304, a county board of elections by
unanimous vote of all its members may provide for one or more sites in that
county for absentee ballots to be applied for and cast under these sections.
Every individual staffing any of those sites shall be a member or full‑time
employee of the county board of elections or an employee of the county board of
elections whom the board has given training equivalent to that given a full‑time
employee. Those sites must be approved by the State Board as part of a Plan for
Implementation approved by both the county board of elections and by the State
Board which shall also provide adequate security of the ballots and provisions
to avoid allowing persons to vote who have already voted. The Plan for
Implementation shall include a provision for the presence of political party
observers at each one‑stop site equivalent to the provisions in
G.S. 163A‑821 for party observers at voting places on election day.
A county board of elections may propose in its Plan not to offer one‑stop
voting at the county board of elections office; the State Board may approve
that proposal in a Plan only if the Plan includes at least one site reasonably
proximate to the county board of elections office and the State Board finds
that the sites in the Plan as a whole provide adequate coverage of the county's
electorate. If a county board of elections has considered a proposed Plan or
Plans for Implementation and has been unable to reach unanimity in favor of a
Plan, a member or members of that county board of elections may petition the
State Board to adopt a plan for it. If petitioned, the State Board may also
receive and consider alternative petitions from another member or members of
that county board. The State Board may adopt a Plan for that county. The State
Board, in that plan, shall take into consideration factors including geographic,
demographic, and partisan interests of that county. Any plan adopted by
either the county board of elections or the State Board under this subsection
shall provide for the same days of operation and same number of hours of
operation on each day for all sites in that county for that election. The
requirement of the previous sentence does not apply to the county board of
elections office itself nor, if one‑stop voting is not conducted at the
county board of elections office, to the reasonably proximate alternate site
approved under this subsection.
…
(c) For all sites approved for one‑stop voting under this section, a county board of elections shall provide the following:
(1) Each one‑stop site across the county shall be open at that same location during the period required by G.S. 163A‑1300(b).
(2) If any one‑stop site across the county is opened on any day during the period required by G.S. 163A‑1300(b), all one‑stop sites shall be open on that day.
(3) On each weekday during the period required by G.S. 163A‑1300(b), all one‑stop sites shall be open from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.
(4) If the county board of elections opens one‑stop sites on Saturdays during the period required by G.S. 163A‑1300(b), then all one‑stop sites shall be open for the same number of hours uniformly throughout the county on those Saturdays.
(5) If the county board of elections opens one‑stop sites on Sundays during the period required by G.S. 163A‑1300(b), then all one‑stop sites shall be open for the same number of hours uniformly throughout the county on those Sundays."
SECTION 3. G.S. 163A‑1304 is repealed.
SECTION 4. G.S. 163A‑877 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(f) Annual Report on List Maintenance Efforts. – County board of elections shall submit to the State Board an annual report, on or before September 1 of each year, of its list maintenance under this section. The State Board shall compile annual reports received from the county board of elections and submit the reports to the Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee on or before October 1 of each year."
SECTION 5. This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 15th day of June, 2018.
s/ Bill Rabon
Presiding Officer of the Senate
s/ David R. Lewis
Presiding Officer of the House of Representatives
VETO Roy Cooper
Governor
Became law notwithstanding the objections of the Governor at 11:00 a.m. this 27th day of June, 2018.
s/ James White
House Principal Clerk