GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

THIRD EXTRA SESSION 2016

H                                                                                                                                                    1

HOUSE BILL 5

December 13, 2016

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT that restores the number of early voting days to the number of days prior to the enactment of the voter information verification act.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 163‑227.2 reads as rewritten:

"§ 163‑227.2.  Alternate procedures for requesting application for absentee ballot; "one‑stop" voting procedure in board office.

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(b)        Not earlier than the second third Thursday before an election, in which absentee ballots are authorized, in which a voter seeks to vote and not later than 1:00 P.M. on the last Saturday before that election, the voter shall appear in person only at the office of the county board of elections, except as provided in subsection (g) of this section. A county board of elections shall conduct one‑stop voting on the last Saturday before the election until 1:00 P.M. and may conduct one‑stop voting until 5:00 P.M. on that Saturday. 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. 163‑166.13. 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. 163‑119, 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. 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.

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(g)        Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, 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 this section. 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 of Elections as part of a Plan for Implementation approved by both the county board of elections and by the State Board of Elections 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. 163‑45 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 of Elections 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 of Elections 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 of Elections 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.

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(g2)      Notwithstanding the requirements of subsection (g) and (g1) of this section, for any county board of elections that provided for one or more sites during the 2010 or 2012 general election, that county shall provide, at a minimum, the following:

(1)        The county board of elections shall calculate the cumulative total number of scheduled voting hours at all sites during the 2012 primary and general elections, respectively, that the county provided for absentee ballots to be applied for and voted under this section. For elections which include a presidential candidate on the ballot, the county shall ensure that at least the same number of hours offered in 2012 is offered for absentee ballots to be applied for and voted under this section through a combination of hours and numbers of one‑stop sites during the primary or general election, correspondingly.

(2)        The county board of elections shall calculate the cumulative total number of scheduled voting hours at all sites during the 2010 primary and general elections, respectively, that the county provided for absentee ballots to be applied for and voted under this section. For elections which do not include a presidential candidate on the ballot, the county shall ensure that at least the same number of hours offered in 2010 is offered for absentee ballots to be applied for and voted under this section through a combination of hours and numbers of one‑stop sites during the primary or general election, correspondingly.

As used in this subsection, the phrase "cumulative total number of scheduled voting hours" includes those at the office of the county board of elections or the reasonably proximate alternate site approved under subsection (g) of this section.

The State Board of Elections, to ensure compliance with this subsection, may approve a one‑stop site in a building that the county board of elections is not entitled under G.S. 163‑129 to demand and use as an election‑day voting place, but may deny approval if a member of that board presents evidence that other equally suitable sites were available and the use of the sites chosen would unfairly advantage or disadvantage geographic, demographic, or partisan interests of that county.

(g3)      A county board of elections by unanimous vote of the board, with all members present and voting, may submit a request to the State Board to reduce the number of hours established in subsection (g2) of this section for a primary or a general election. The reduction shall take effect for that primary or general election only if approved by unanimous vote of the State Board with all members present and voting.

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SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to elections held on or after September 1, 2017.