GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION LAW 2001-316
AN ACT TO CLARIFY THE DEFINITION OF RESIDENCY FOR PERSONS ENGAGING IN THE SERVICE OF STATE GOVERNMENT, AND TO MAKE OTHER TECHNICAL CHANGES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 163-57 reads as rewritten:
"§ 163-57. Residence defined for registration and voting.
All election officials in determining the residence of a person offering to register or vote, shall be governed by the following rules, so far as they may apply:
(1) That place shall be
considered the residence of a person in which histhat person's habitation
is fixed, and to which, whenever he that person is absent, he has
the intention of returning.
(2) A person shall not be
considered to have lost histhat person's residence who if
that person leaves his home and goes into another state or county of
this State, for temporary purposes only, with the intention of returning.
(3) A person shall not be
considered to have gained a residence in any county of this State, into which he
that person comes for temporary purposes only, without the intention
of making such that county his a permanent place of
abode.
(4) If a person removes to
another state or county within this State, with the intention of making such
that state or county his a permanent residence, hethat
person shall be considered to have lost his residence in the state
or county from which hethat person has removed.
(5) If a person removes to
another state or county within this State, with the intention of remaining
there an indefinite time and making suchthat state or county his
that person's place of residence, he that person shall
be considered to have lost histhat person's place of residence in
this State or the county from which he that person has removed,
notwithstanding he that person may entertain an intention to
return at some future time.
(6) If a person goes into
another state or county, or into the District of Columbia, and while there
exercises the right of a citizen by voting in an election, hethat
person shall be considered to have lost his residence in this State
or county.
(7) School teachers who remove to a county for the purpose of teaching in the schools of that county temporarily and with the intention or expectation of returning during vacation periods to live in the county in which their parents or other relatives reside, and who do not have the intention of becoming residents of the county to which they have moved to teach, for purposes of registration and voting shall be considered residents of the county in which their parents or other relatives reside.
(8) If a person removes to
the District of Columbia or other federal territory to engage in the government
service, he that person shall not be considered to have lost his
residence in this State during the period of such service unless hethat
person votes there, in the place to which the person removed, and
the place at which he that person resided at the time of his that
person's removal shall be considered and held to be his the place
of residence.
(9) If a person removes to
a county to engage in the service of the State government, he that
person shall not be considered to have lost his residence in the
county from which he that person removed, unless he
demonstrates a contrary intention.that person votes in the place to
which the person removed, and the place at which that person resided at the time
of that person's removal shall be considered and held to be the place of
residence.
(9a) The establishment of a secondary residence by an elected official outside the district of the elected official shall not constitute prima facie evidence of a change of residence.
(10) For the purpose of voting a spouse shall be eligible to establish a separate domicile.
(11) So long as a student intends to
make his the student's home in the community where hethe
student is physically present for the purpose of attending school while he
the student is attending school and has no intent to return to his
the student's former home after graduation, he the student
may claim the college community as his the student's domicile.
He The student need not also intend to stay in the college
community beyond graduation in order to establish his domicile there.
This subdivision is intended to codify the case law."
SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 19th day of July, 2001.
s/ Beverly E. Perdue
President of the Senate
s/ James B. Black
Speaker of the House of Representatives
s/ Michael F. Easley
Governor
Approved 12:25 p.m. this 28th day of July, 2001