GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1989

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 1166

Short Title:  Public Access/Legislative Votes.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Representatives L. Etheridge, Pope; and Grady.
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Referred to:  Rules.
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April 11, 1989

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO UPGRADE THE ELECTRONIC VOTING APPARATUS AND ESTABLISH A COMPUTER DATA BASE TO GIVE THE PUBLIC ACCESS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY VOTES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 120-11.2 reads as rewritten:
"§ 120-11.2. Installation and use of electronic voting apparatus.
(a)	The General Assembly of North Carolina shall, in accordance with rules adopted by each of the respective bodies, vote by use of electronic voting apparatus. The electronic voting apparatus shall be purchased by and installed under the direct supervision of the Legislative Services Commission as soon as is practicable, but in any event the apparatus shall be installed and fully operational as soon as possible after January 1, 1975.
(b)	The rules of the House of Representatives and the Senate shall be amended so as to provide for the installation and use of electronic voting apparatus.
(c)	Working plans for the installation of electronic voting equipment shall be submitted to the Legislative Services Commission for approval to the end that the architectural integrity of the building may be preserved.
(d)	The electronic voting apparatus shall be upgraded or replaced in order to allow votes of the House of Representatives and Senate to be stored and retrieved electronically in a computer data base.  The upgrade or replacement of the electronic voting apparatus and computer data base shall be purchased by and installed under the direct supervision of the Legislative Services Commission as soon as practicable, but in any event the apparatus and computer data base shall be installed and fully operational as soon as possible after April 1, 1990.  The cost of the upgrade and replacement and any costs to implement subsection (e) of this section shall be paid from the reserve of funds previously appropriated to the General Assembly of North Carolina.
(e)	The rules of the House of Representatives and the Senate shall be amended so as to provide the public access to the computer data base to retrieve votes by reference to one or a combination of the following criteria; session year, member, bill or resolution title, bill or resolution number, motion or amendment to a bill or resolution, General Statute citation, or subject matter."
Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification.