AN ACT to clarify the process for election of the cleveland county board of education.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Section 3.1 of S.L. 2017‑78 reads as rewritten:
"SECTION 3.1.  Notwithstanding the Plan for the Merger of the Cleveland County, Kings Mountain District, and Shelby City Schools and S.L. 2004‑41, as amended by S.L. 2007‑49, beginning with the 2017 elections, members of the Cleveland County Board of Education shall be elected in elections conducted on a partisan basis, as provided in G.S. 163‑291. Unaffiliated candidates shall be nominated by petition as provided in G.S. 163‑296. Vacancies for members elected in 2017 and thereafter shall be filled as provided in G.S. 115C‑37.1."
SECTION 2.  S.L. 2017‑78 is amended by adding a new section to read:
"SECTION 3.3.  Notwithstanding the petition signature requirements of G.S. 163‑296, for the 2017 elections for the Cleveland County Board of Education only, petitions for an unaffiliated candidate to be placed upon the ballot for that office shall be signed by at least 500 voters of Cleveland County qualified to vote in the Cleveland County Board of Education election according to the voter registration records of the Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement as of January 1, 2017."
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 3rd day of August, 2017.

	s/	 Bill Rabon
	 Presiding Officer of the Senate

	s/	 Tim Moore
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives