§ 163-227.2. Alternate procedures for requesting application for absentee ballot; "one-stop" voting procedure in board office.
§ 163‑227.2. Alternateprocedures for requesting application for absentee ballot; "one‑stop"voting procedure in board office.
(a) Any voter eligibleto vote by absentee ballot under G.S. 163‑226 may request an applicationfor absentee ballots, complete the application, and vote under the provisionsof this section and of G.S. 163‑82.6A, as applicable.
(a1) Repealed by SessionLaws 2001‑337, s. 2, effective January 1, 2002.
(b) Not earlier thanthe third Thursday before an election, in which absentee ballots areauthorized, in which a voter seeks to vote and not later than 1:00 P.M. on thelast Saturday before that election, the voter shall appear in person only atthe office of the county board of elections, except as provided in subsection(g) of this section. A county board of elections shall conduct one‑stopvoting on the last Saturday before the election until 1:00 P.M. and may conductit until 5:00 P.M. on that Saturday. That voter shall enter the votingenclosure at the board office through the appropriate entrance and shall atonce state his or her name and place of residence to an authorized member oremployee of the board. In a primary election, the voter shall also state thepolitical party with which the voter affiliates and in whose primary the voterdesires to vote, or if the voter is an unaffiliated voter permitted to vote inthe primary of a particular party under G.S. 163‑119, the voter shallstate the name of the authorizing political party in whose primary he wishes tovote. The board member or employee to whom the voter gives this informationshall 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 statewhether the person seeking to vote is duly registered. If the voter is found tobe registered that voter may request that the authorized member or employee ofthe 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 authorizedmember or employee of the board, and shall deliver the application to thatperson.
(c) If the applicationis properly filled out, the authorized member or employee shall enter thevoter's name in the register of absentee requests, applications, and ballotsissued and shall furnish the voter with the ballots to which the applicationfor absentee ballots applies. The voter thereupon shall vote in accordance withsubsection (e) of this section.
All actions required by thissubsection shall be performed in the office of the board of elections, exceptthat the voting may take place in an adjacent room as provided by subsection(e) of this section. The application under this subsection shall be signed inthe presence of the chair, member, director of elections of the board, or full‑timeemployee, authorized by the board who shall sign the application andcertificate as the witness and indicate the official title held by him or her.Notwithstanding G.S. 163‑231(a), in the case of this subsection, only onewitness shall be required on the certificate.
(d) Only the chairman,member, employee, or director of elections of the board shall keep the voter'sapplication for absentee ballots in a safe place, separate and apart from otherapplications and container‑return envelopes. If the voter's applicationfor absentee ballots is disapproved by the board, the board shall so notify thevoter stating the reason for disapproval by first‑class mail addressed tothe voter at that voter's residence address and at the address shown in theapplication for absentee ballots; and the board shall enter a challenge underG.S. 163‑89.
(e) The voter shallvote that voter's absentee ballot in a voting booth in the office of the countyboard of elections, and the county board of elections shall provide a votingbooth for that purpose, provided however, that the county board of electionsmay in the alternative provide a private room for the voter adjacent to theoffice of the board, in which case the voter shall vote that voter's absenteeballot in that room. A voter at a one‑stop site shall be entitled to thesame assistance as a voter at a voting place on election day under G.S. 163‑166.8.The State Board of Elections shall, where appropriate, adapt the rules itadopts under G.S. 163‑166.8 to one‑stop voting.
(e1) If a county uses avoting system with retrievable ballots, that county's board of elections may byresolution elect to conduct one‑stop absentee voting according to theprovisions of this subsection. In a county in which the board has opted to doso, a one‑stop voter shall cast the ballot and then shall deposit theballot in the ballot box or voting system in the same manner as if such box orsystem was in use in a precinct on election day. At the end of each businessday, or at any time when there will be no employee or officer of the board ofelections on the premises, the ballot box or system shall be secured inaccordance with a plan approved by the State Board of Elections, which shallinclude that no additional ballots have been placed in the box or system. Anycounty board desiring to conduct one‑stop voting according to thissubsection shall submit a plan for doing so to the State Board of Elections.The State Board shall adopt standards for conducting one‑stop votingunder this subsection and shall approve any county plan that adheres to itsstandards. The county board shall adhere to its State Board‑approvedplan. The plan shall provide that each one‑stop ballot shall have aballot number on it in accordance with G.S. 163‑230.1(a2), or shall havean equivalent identifier to allow for retrievability. The standards shalladdress retrievability in one‑stop voting on direct record electronicequipment where no paper ballot is used.
(e2) A voter who hasmoved within the county more than 30 days before election day but has notreported the move to the board of elections shall not be required on thataccount to vote a provisional ballot at the one‑stop site, as long as theone‑stop site has available all the information necessary to determinewhether a voter is registered to vote in the county and which ballot the voteris eligible to vote based on the voter's proper residence address. The voterwith that kind of unreported move shall be allowed to vote the same kind of absenteeballot as other one‑stop voters.
(f) Notwithstandingthe exception specified in G.S. 163‑36, counties which operate a modifiedfull‑time office shall remain open five days each week during regularbusiness hours consistent with daily hours presently observed by the countyboard of elections, commencing with the date prescribed in G.S. 163‑227.2(b)and continuing until 5:00 P.M. on the Friday prior to that election and shallalso be open on the last Saturday before the election. A county board may conductone‑stop absentee voting during evenings or on weekends, as long as thehours are part of a plan submitted and approved according to subsection (g) ofthis section. The boards of county commissioners shall provide necessary fundsfor the additional operation of the office during that time.
(g) Notwithstanding anyother provision of this section, a county board of elections by unanimous voteof all its members may provide for one or more sites in that county forabsentee ballots to be applied for and cast under this section. Everyindividual staffing any of those sites shall be a member or full‑timeemployee of the county board of elections or an employee of the county board ofelections whom the board has given training equivalent to that given a full‑timeemployee. Those sites must be approved by the State Board of Elections as partof a Plan for Implementation approved by both the county board of elections andby the State Board of Elections which shall also provide adequate security ofthe ballots and provisions to avoid allowing persons to vote who have alreadyvoted. The Plan for Implementation shall include a provision for the presenceof political party observers at each one‑stop site equivalent to theprovisions in G.S. 163‑45 for party observers at voting places onelection day. A county board of elections may propose in its Plan not to offerone‑stop voting at the county board of elections office; the State Boardmay approve that proposal in a Plan only if the Plan includes at least one sitereasonably proximate to the county board of elections office and the StateBoard finds that the sites in the Plan as a whole provide adequate coverage ofthe county's electorate. If a county board of elections has considered aproposed Plan or Plans for Implementation and has been unable to reachunanimity in favor of a Plan, a member or members of that county board ofelections may petition the State Board of Elections to adopt a plan for it. Ifpetitioned, the State Board may also receive and consider alternative petitionsfrom another member or members of that county board. The State Board ofElections may adopt a Plan for that county. The State Board, in that plan,shall take into consideration factors including geographic, demographic, andpartisan interests of that county.
(g1) The State Board ofElections shall not approve, either in a Plan approved unanimously by a countyboard of elections or in an alternative Plan proposed by a member or members ofthat board, a one‑stop site in a building that the county board ofelections is not entitled under G.S. 163‑129 to demand and use as anelection‑day voting place, unless the State Board of Elections finds thatother equally suitable sites were not available and that the use of the siteschosen will not unfairly advantage or disadvantage geographic, demographic, orpartisan interests of that county. In providing the site or sites for one‑stopabsentee voting under this section, the county board of elections shall make arequest to the State, county, city, local school board, or other entity incontrol of the building that is supported or maintained, in whole or in part,by or through tax revenues at least 90 days prior to the start of one‑stopabsentee voting under this section. The request shall clearly identify thebuilding, or any specific portion thereof, requested the dates and times forwhich that building or specific portion thereof is requested and therequirement of an area for election related activity. If the State, localgoverning board, or other entity in control of the building does not respond tothe request within 20 days, the building or specific portion thereof may beused for one‑stop absentee voting as stated in the request. If the State,local governing board, or other entity in control of the building or specificportion thereof responds negatively to the request within 20 days, that entityand the county board of elections shall, in good faith, work to identify abuilding or specific portion thereof in which to conduct one‑stopabsentee voting under this section. If no building or specific portion thereofhas been agreed upon within 45 days from the date the county board of electionsreceived a response to the request, the matter shall be resolved by the StateBoard of Elections.
(h) Notwithstanding theprovisions of G.S. 163‑89(a) and (b), a challenge may be entered againsta voter at a one‑stop site under subsection (g) of this section or duringone‑stop voting at the county board office. The challenge may be enteredby a person conducting one‑stop voting under this section or by anotherregistered voter who resides in the same precinct as the voter beingchallenged. If challenged at the place where one‑stop voting occurs, thevoter shall be allowed to cast a ballot in the same way as other voters. Thechallenge shall be made on forms prescribed by the State Board of Elections.The challenge shall be heard by the county board of elections in accordancewith the procedures set forth in G.S. 163‑89(e).
(i) At any site whereone‑stop absentee voting is conducted, there shall be a curtained orotherwise private area where the voter may mark the ballot unobserved. (1973, c. 536, s. 1; 1975,c. 844, s. 12; 1977, c. 469, s. 1; c. 626, s. 1; 1979, c. 107, s. 14; c. 799,ss. 1‑3; 1981, c. 305, s. 2; 1985, c. 600, s. 4; 1987, c. 583, s. 4;1989, c. 520; 1989 (Reg. Sess., 1990), c. 991, s. 2; 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994),c. 762, s. 53; 1995, c. 243, s. 1; c. 509, ss. 117, 118; 1995 (Reg. Sess.,1996), c. 561, s. 4; 1997‑510, s. 2; 1999‑455, s. 6; 2000‑136,s. 2; 2001‑319, s. 5(a)‑(c); 2001‑337, s. 2; 2001‑353,s. 9; 2003‑278, s. 11; 2005‑428, ss. 5(a), 6(a), 7; 2007‑253,s. 3; 2007‑391, s. 34(a); 2009‑541, s. 23.)