A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to permit certain township abc elections.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 18B‑600(f) reads as rewritten:
"(f)	Township Elections. – An election may be called on any of the propositions listed in G.S. 18B‑602 in any township located within:
(1)	A county where ABC stores have heretofore been established by petition pursuant to law.
(2)	A county where ABC stores have been established pursuant to law, in which county according to data from the North Carolina Department of Commerce: (i) one‑third or more of the employment is travel related, (ii) spending on travel exceeds four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) per year, and where the entirety of two townships consists of one island (and several smaller islands not making up more than one percent (1%) of the total land area of the two townships) where that island:
a.	Has a population of 4,000 or over according to the most recent decennial federal census;
b.	Is located with one side facing the ocean and another side facing a coastal sound.
(3)	A county bordering on both:
a.	A county with a population of 500,000 or over, according to the most recent decennial federal census; and
b.	A county with a population of over 10,000 housed in military quarters, according to the most recent decennial federal census.
In the case of subdivision (2) of this section, an election may be called in the two townships voting together on the proposition contained in G.S. 18B‑602(h).
The election shall be held by the county board of elections upon request of the county board of commissioners or upon petition of twenty‑five percent (25%) of the registered voters of the township, or in the case of subdivision (2) of this section, of the two townships taken together. The county board of commissioners in any county authorized to hold township elections pursuant to subdivision (3) of this subsection may establish a different process under which the residents of townships in that county may petition the board to call for the township elections. The election shall be conducted and the results determined in the same manner as county elections held under this Article. For purposes of this Article, townships holding any election under this subsection shall be treated on the same basis as counties, and municipalities located within those townships shall be treated on the same basis as cities. In the case of an election under subdivision (2) of this subsection, the votes of the two townships counted together shall determine the result of the election.
In order for an establishment to qualify for a permit under this subsection, the establishment's gross receipts from food and nonalcoholic beverages shall be greater than its gross receipts from alcoholic beverages."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.