GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1987 SESSION
CHAPTER 416
AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE PROMPT RETURN OF BALLOT BOXES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. G.S. 163-171 reads as rewritten:
"§ 163-171. Preservation of ballots; locking and sealing ballot boxes; signing certificates.-When the precinct count is completed after a primary or election, all ballots shall be put back in the ballot boxes from which they were taken, and the registrar and judges shall promptly lock and place a seal around the top of each ballot box, so that no ballot may be taken from or put in it. The registrar and judges shall then sign the seal on each ballot box. In the alternative, the county board of elections may permit the precinct officials to put the counted ballots back in one ballot box or more to facilitate safekeeping provided the board prescribes an appropriate procedure to keep the different kinds of ballots separated in bundles or bags within the box.
Ballot boxes in which ballots have been placed and which have been locked and sealed as required by the preceding paragraph shall remain in the safe custody of the registrar, subject to the orders of the chairman of the county board of elections as to their disposition; provided that ballot boxes with paper ballots shall be delivered in person to the office of the county board of elections; provided further that in the case of paper ballots which have been counted either mechanically or electronically either the counting machines with the paper ballots sealed inside shall be delivered in person to the office of the county board of elections, or the paper ballots shall be placed in ballot boxes, sealed, and those boxes shall be delivered in person to the office of the county board of elections. The ballots and ballot boxes shall be delivered at a time specified by the county board of elections. No ballot box shall be opened except upon the written order of the county board of elections or upon a proper order of court.
Ballots cast in a primary or general election shall be preserved for at least two months after the primary or general election in which voted.
On each precinct return form there shall be printed a statement to be signed by the registrar and judges certifying that, after the precinct count was completed, each ballot box was properly locked, sealed, and the seals signed, as prescribed in this section, before the precinct officials left the voting place on the night of the primary or election.
Willful failure to securely lock, seal, and sign the seal on each ballot box on the night of any primary or election, and willful failure to sign the certificate on the duplicate return forms certifying that this was done, shall constitute a misdemeanor."
Sec. 2. This act shall become effective with respect to primaries and elections held on or after January 1, 1988.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 18th day of June, 1987.