§ 163-82.18. Appeal from denial of registration.
§ 163‑82.18. Appeal from denial ofregistration.
(a) Right to Appeal. Any applicant who receives notice ofdenial of registration pursuant to G.S. 163‑82.7 may appeal the denialwithin five days after receipt of the notice of denial. The county board ofelections shall promptly set a date for a public hearing. The notice of appealshall be in writing and shall be signed by the appealing party, shall includethe appealing party's name, date of birth, address, and reasons for the appeal.
(b) Hearing Before County Board of Elections. The county boardof elections shall set a date and time for a public hearing and shall notifythe appealing party. Every person appealing to the county board of electionsfrom denial of registration shall be entitled to a prompt and fair hearing onthe question of the denied applicant's right and qualifications to register asa voter. All cases on appeal to a county board of elections shall be heard denovo.
Two members of the county board of elections shall constitute a quorumfor the purpose of hearing appeals on questions of registration. The decisionof a majority of the members of the board shall be the decision of the board.The board shall be authorized to subpoena witnesses and to compel theirattendance and testimony under oath, and it is further authorized to subpoenapapers and documents relevant to any matters pending before the board.
If at the hearing the board shall find that the person appealing from adenial of registration meets all requirements of law for registration as avoter in the county, the board shall enter an order directing that theappellant be registered and assign the appellant to the appropriate precinct.Not later than five days after an appeal is heard before the county board ofelections, the board shall give written notice of its decision to the appealingparty.
(c) Appeal to Superior Court. Any person aggrieved by a finaldecision of a county board of elections denying registration may at any timewithin 10 days from the date on which he receives notice of the decision appealto the superior court of the county in which the board is located. Upon such anappeal, the appealing party shall be the plaintiff and the county board ofelections shall be the defendant, and the matter shall be heard de novo in thesuperior court in the manner in which other civil actions are tried anddisposed of in that court.
If the decision of the court is that the order of the county board ofelections shall be set aside, then the court shall enter its order so providingand adjudging that the plaintiff is entitled to be registered as a qualifiedvoter in the precinct in which he originally made application to register, andin such case the plaintiff's name shall be entered in the registration book ofthat precinct. The court shall not order the registration of any person in aprecinct in which he did not apply to register prior to the proceeding incourt.
From the judgment of the superior court an appeal may be taken to theappellate division in the same manner as other appeals are taken from judgmentsof that court in civil actions. (1957, c. 287, dd. 2‑4; 1967, c. 775, s. 1; 1969, c. 44, s. 82;1981, c. 542, ss. 1, 2; 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 762, s. 2.)