Enacts Article 15B, titled the “Voter Protection and Reliance Act” (Act), to GS Chapter 163. Sets forth the General Assembly’s findings in GS 163-182.50. Enacts GS 163-182.51 requiring, in any civil action filed in a State court, a protest before the State Board or a county board of elections, or other proceeding, for the adjudicator to deem a law effective and an election procedure established when either of the following applies: (1) it is a constitutional provision adopted, statute enacted, or regulation codified before election day and as it was administered in any directive or administrative memorandum on election day and (2) it is a directive, administrative memorandum, including a "numbered memo," procedure, or established pattern or practice of the State Board or a county board of elections that was in place on election day. Instructs the adjudicator to construe acts and draw inferences in favor of finding that the election procedure was established, based on voter reliance and the availability of legislative or judicial recourse before election day. Specifies that if the election procedures were allegedly in conflict on election day, the adjudicator must construe those procedures in favor of the voter based on an understanding of the procedures as relied on by that voter. Provides for rules of construction for procedures changed during absentee or early voting periods or on election day. Prevents a law or interpretation of law that was not effective, or election procedure that was not established on election day from abrogating a person’s right to vote. Prohibits an administrative body, court, or official from acting to exclude a vote from canvass, fail to certify an election, withhold a certificate of election, or fail to seat a prevailing candidate by excluding votes based on a law, judicial ruling, or legal interpretation that was not in effect on election day or an election procedure that was not established by election day. Provides for expedited procedures for litigation: (1) filed within 90 days before the earliest date absentee ballots may be mailed for an election or (2) a covered action (defined) filed post-election that seeks to challenge the outcome of an election in GS 163-182.52. Requires in these expedited procedures for the plaintiff to serve the State Board or other appropriate election authority within 24 hours and the court to hold an initial scheduling conference within five days of the filing. Now instructs, in challenges before the county board of elections under GS 163-182.9, that no protest challenging a voter's registration will be sustained to invalidate a cast ballot or prevent a voter from voting where the alleged error in an accepted registration is a technical or clerical error, such as an incomplete form, on which the voter detrimentally relied, unless the protester demonstrates that the voter was in fact ineligible to vote at the time of registration.

Statutes affected:
Filed: 163-182.9
Edition 1: 163-182.9