Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Election Law Reform

This session the General Assembly made a few changes to election law. We ratified and Governor Easley signed into law a bill that makes it a felony to instruct or coerce non-citizens to vote. The bill, House Bill 1743, also establishes misdemeanor penalties for breaching ballot secrecy or trying to convince a person to select a party affiliation other than one of their own choosing. The bill also allows combined ballots and provides civil penalties for officials who are late reporting campaign contributions and expenditures. Penalties can be as high as three times the amount of funds concealed if the State Board of Elections finds that the officials deliberately concealed contributions or expenditures.

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