GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1991

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 750

Short Title:  Absentee Ballots/Guardians.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Representatives Loflin (By Request); and Culp.
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Referred to:  Courts, Justice, Constitutional Amendments and Referenda.
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April 15, 1991

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO ALLOW VERIFIABLE LEGAL GUARDIANS TO APPLY FOR AND OTHERWISE HANDLE ABSENTEE BALLOTS FOR THEIR WARD.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 163-227 reads as rewritten:
"§ 163-227.  State Board to prescribe form of application for absentee ballots; county to secure.
(a)	Applications for Absentee Ballots Generally. – A voter falling in any one of the categories defined in G.S. 163-226, 163-226.1 or 163-226.2 may apply for absentee ballots not earlier than 50 days prior to the statewide, county or municipal election in which he seeks to vote and not later than 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday before that election.  Subject to all other provisions contained in this Article, a voter applying for an absentee ballot shall complete the standard application form to be secured by the county board of elections, as designed and prescribed by the State Board of Elections.  The form shall contain lines to be checked off by each of the kinds of voters specified below:
(1)	A voter expecting to be absent from the county of his residence all day on the day of the specified election.  (G.S. 163-226(a)(1)).
(2)	A voter who is unable to be present at the voting place to vote in person on the day of the specified election because of his sickness or other physical disability occurring before 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday prior to the date of the specified election. (G.S. 163-226(a)(2)(3)). A voter who is unable to be present at the voting place to vote in person on the day of the specified election because of his sickness or other physical disability occurring since 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday prior to the date of the specified election. (G.S. 163-226(a)(2)).
(4)	A voter expecting to be absent from the county, or due to emergency disability will be unable to vote in person, or a person who qualifies under G.S. 163-226(a)(4), and who, in lieu of making application by mail, wishes to apply in person and receive a ballot which he may immediately vote in the office of the county board of elections.
(b)	Types of Applications; Instructions. –
(1)	Expected Absence from County on Election Day. – A voter expected to be absent from the county in which registered during the entire period that the polls will be open on primary or general election day, or a near relative, or verifiable legal guardian, shall make written application for absentee ballots to the chairman of the board of elections of the county in which the voter is registered not earlier than 50 days nor later than 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday before the election.  The application shall be submitted in the form set out in this subdivision upon a copy which shall be furnished the voter or a near relative by the chairman of the county board of elections.
		The applicant shall sign his application personally, or it shall be signed by a near relative or verifiable legal guardian. The application shall be signed in the presence of a witness, who shall sign his name in the place provided on the form. The application form when properly filled out shall be transmitted by mail or delivered in person by the applicant or a near relative to the chairman or the supervisor of elections of the county board of elections.
(2)	Absence for Sickness or Physical Disability Occurring before 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday prior to the Primary or General Election. – A voter expecting to be unable to go to the voting place to vote in person on primary or general election day because of his sickness or other physical disability, or his near relative or verifiable legal guardian, shall make written application for absentee ballots to the chairman of the board of elections of the county in which the voter is registered not earlier than 50 days nor later than 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday before the election. The application shall be submitted in the form set out in this subdivision upon a copy which shall be furnished the voter or a near relative or verifiable legal guardian by the chairman of the county board of elections.
		The application shall be signed by the voter personally, or it shall be signed by a near relative or verifiable legal guardian.  The application shall be signed in the presence of a witness, who shall sign his name in the place provided on the form.
	   The application form, when properly filled out, shall be transmitted by mail or delivered in person by the applicant or a near relative or verifiable legal guardian to the chairman or supervisor of elections of the county board of elections of the county in which the applicant is registered.
(3)	Absence for Sickness or Physical Disability Occurring after 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday prior to Primary or General Election. – A voter expecting to be unable to go to the voting place to vote in person on primary or general election day because of sickness or other disability occurring after 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday before the election, or a near relative, or verifiable legal guardian, shall make written application for absentee ballots to the chairman of the board of elections of the county in which he is registered not later than 12:00 noon on the day preceding the election.  The application shall be submitted in the form set out in this subdivision upon a copy which shall be furnished the voter or a near relative or a verifiable legal guardian by the chairman of the county board of elections.
		The chairman of the county board of elections shall not issue or accept an application under the provisions of this subdivision later than 12:00 noon on the day preceding the election in which the voter seeks to vote.
		The application shall be signed by the voter personally, or it shall be signed by a near relative or verifiable legal guardian. The application shall be signed in the presence of a witness who shall sign his name in the place provided on the form.
		The certificate printed on the application form below the signatures of the applicant and his subscribing witness shall be filled in and signed in the presence of a witness by a licensed physician who is attending the applicant. The witness to the physician's certificate shall sign his name in the place provided on the form.
		The application form, when properly filled out, signed by or for the applicant in the presence of a subscribing witness as provided in this subdivision, and certified and signed by the attending physician in the presence of a subscribing witness, may be transmitted by mail to the chairman or supervisor of elections of the board of elections of the county in which the applicant is registered, or it may be delivered to the chairman or supervisor of elections in person by the applicant or by his near relative.
(4)	'One-Stop' Voting Procedure, in Office of the County Board of Elections. – A voter falling in the category specified in G.S. 163-227.2 may execute an application form and proceed to vote his absentee ballot in the office of the county board of elections only.
(c)	Application Forms Issued by Chairman of County Board of Elections. – The chairman of the county board of elections shall be sole custodian of all absentee ballot application forms, but he, the secretary of the board and the supervisor of elections of the board, in accordance with one of the following two procedures, shall issue and deliver a single application form, upon request, to a person authorized to sign such an application under the provisions of this section:
(1)	The chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections may deliver the form to a voter personally or to his near relative or verifiable legal guardian at the office of the county board of elections for the voter's own use; or
(2)	The chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections may mail the form to a voter for his own use upon receipt of a written request from the voter or his near relative or verifiable legal guardian.
		At the time he issues an application form, the chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections of the county board of elections shall number it and write the name of the voter in the space provided therefor at the top of the form. At the same time the chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections shall insert the name of the voter and the number assigned his application in the register of absentee ballot applications and ballots issued provided for in G.S. 163-228. If the application is requested by the voter's near relative, or verifiable legal guardian, the chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections also shall insert that person's name in the register after the name of the voter.
		The chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections shall issue only one application form to a voter or his near relative or verifiable legal guardian unless a form previously issued is returned to the chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections and marked 'Void' by him. In such a situation, the chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections may issue another application form to the voter or a near relative or verifiable legal guardian, but he shall retain the voided application form in the board's records. If the application is requested by the voter's near relative or verifiable legal guardian, the chairman, secretary or supervisor of elections shall write the name of the near relative or verifiable legal guardian on the index of near relatives or verifiable legal guardians, applying for applications for absentee ballots; the index shall be in such form as may be prescribed or approved by the State Board of Elections; a separate index shall be maintained for each primary, general or special election in which absentee voting is allowed.
(3)	Applications or Absentee Ballots Transmitted by Mail or in Person. – An application for absentee ballots shall be made and signed only by the voter desiring to use them or the voter's near relative or verifiable legal guardian and shall be valid only when transmitted to the chairman or supervisor of elections of the county board of elections by mail or delivered in person by the voter or his near relative or legal guardian.
(4)	Who Is Authorized to Request Applications for Absentee Ballots. – A voter may personally request an application for absentee ballots or may cause such request to be made through a near relative or verifiable legal guardian. For the purpose of this Article, 'near relative ' means spouse, brother, sister, parent, grandparent, child, or grandchild.
(5)	The form of application for persons applying to vote in a primary under the provisions of this section shall be as designed and prescribed by the State Board of Elections. No voter shall be furnished ballots for voting in a primary except the ballots for candidates for nomination in the primary of the political party with which he is affiliated at the time he makes application for absentee ballots. The official registration records of the county in which the voter is registered shall be proof of the party, if any, with which the voter is affiliated.
(6)	The county board of elections shall cause to be stamped or printed on the face of each application for absentee ballots the following legend, and the blank space in the legend to be completed:
	'This application is issued for absentee ballots to be voted in the ________ (primary or general or special election) to be held in __________ County on the _______ day of _______, 19 ____.' The county board of elections shall not issue any absentee ballots on the basis of any application that does not bear the completed legend.
(7)	No applications shall be issued earlier than 60 days prior to the election in which the voter wishes to vote. Nothing herein shall prohibit the county board of elections from receiving written requests for applications earlier than 60 days prior to the election but such applications shall not be mailed or issued to the voter in person earlier than 60 days prior to the election.
(8)	Applications for absentee ballots shall be issued only by mail or in the office of the county board of elections to the voter or a near relative or verifiable legal guardian authorized to make application. No election official shall issue applications for absentee ballots except in compliance with the provisions stated herein."
Sec. 2.  This act becomes effective January 1, 1992.