GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2011

S                                                                                                                                                     1

SENATE BILL 714

 

 

Short Title:        Satellite Early Voting Minimum Times.		(Public)
Sponsors:	Senator Nesbitt.
Referred to:	Judiciary I.

April 20, 2011

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to require that in general elections within each county all satellite early voting sites are open at least the same number of days and hours each week as the board of elections office site.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

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

"(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. For each general election in the even‑numbered year, all satellite early voting sites shall be open at least the same number of days per week and at least the same number of hours per day as the days and hours of one‑stop voting at the county board of elections office or at the replacement site proximate to that site. 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."

SECTION 2.  This act is effective with respect to all elections conducted on or after January 1, 2012.