AN ACT to simplify the process of filling a vacancy on a party ticket.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 163‑114 reads as rewritten:
"§ 163‑114.  Filling vacancies among party nominees occurring after nomination and before election.
If any person nominated as a candidate of a political party for one of the offices listed below (either in a primary or convention or by virtue of having no opposition in a primary) dies, resigns, or for any reason becomes ineligible or disqualified before the date of the ensuing general election, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment according to the following instructions:

Position 		

President 		Vacancy is to be filled by
Vice President 		appointment of national executive 
		committee of political party in
		which vacancy 	occurs

Presidential elector or		Vacancy is to be filled by
alternate elector 		appointment of State executive
Any elective State office		committee of political party in
United States Senator 		which vacancy occurs

A district office, including: 		Appropriate district executive
	Member of the United States			committee of political party in
	  House of Representatives 			which vacancy occurs
	District Attorney
	State Senator in a multi‑county 
	  senatorial district
	Member of State House of 
	  Representatives in a multi‑county 
	  representative district

State Senator in a single‑county 		County executive committee of
	senatorial district			political party in which vacancy
Member of State House of			occurs, provided, in the case of 
	Representatives in a single‑county 			the State Senator or State
	representative district			Representative in a single‑county
Any elective county office 			district where not all the county is located in that district, then in voting, only those members of the county executive committee who reside within the district shall vote

The party executive making a nomination in accordance with the provisions of this section shall certify the name of its nominee to the chairman of the board of elections, State or county, that has jurisdiction over the ballot item under G.S. 163-182.4. If at the time a nomination is made under this section the general election ballots have already been printed, the provisions of G.S. 163‑165.3(c) shall apply. If a vacancy occurs in a nomination of a political party and that vacancy arises from a cause other than death and the vacancy in nomination occurs more than 120 days before the general election, the vacancy in nomination may be filled under this section only if the appropriate executive committee certifies the name of the nominee in accordance with this paragraph at least 75 days before the general election.
In a county not all of which is located in one congressional district, in choosing the congressional district executive committee member or members from that area of the county, only the county convention delegates or county executive committee members who reside within the area of the county which is within the congressional district may vote.
In a county which is partly in a multi‑county senatorial district or which is partly in a multi‑county House of Representatives district, in choosing that county's member or members of the senatorial district executive committee or House of Representatives district executive committee for the multi‑county district, only the county convention delegates or county executive committee members who reside within the area of the county which is within that multi‑county district may vote."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 29th day of May, 2003.

	s/	 Beverly E. Perdue
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Richard T. Morgan
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved 11:32 p.m. this 4th day of June, 2003