North Carolina - S.B. 237

Short Title: Voting Materials in English. (Public)

Sponsors: Senators Brock; Allran and Hunt.

Referred to: Judiciary I

February 19, 2009

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT TO RESTRICT VOTER REGISTRATION FORMS AND BALLOTS TO THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1. Article 14A of Chapter 163 of the General Statutes reads as rewritten:

"§ 163-82.4A. Voter registration application form in English only, except where required by federal law. 

The State Board of Elections and any county board of elections shall not print or make available the voter registration forms described in this Article in any language other than English, except to the extent doing so in another language is required by federal law."

SECTION 2. G.S. 163-82.5 reads as rewritten:

"§ 163-82.5. Distribution of application forms.

The Except as prohibited by G.S. 163-82.4A, the State Board of Elections shall make the forms described in G.S. 163-82.3 available for distribution through governmental and private entities, with particular emphasis on making them available for organized voter registration drives."

SECTION 3 Nothing in this act shall affect the acceptance by a board of elections of an otherwise valid voter registration application submitted on a form that is not in English.

SECTION 4. This act becomes effective January 1, 2010.